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we have pleased to offer you to Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Reviews
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful 
Romantic intensity pushed to the limits, May 11, 2000 This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Audio CD) I made the investment of buying the complete Bernstein Mahler cycle a number of years ago. Since then, I have found better recordings of a few (Abbado's fourth, Boulez's first), and certainly different recordings of the second, but none that are so romantic and intense. Abbado's is perhaps a bit more faithful to the score and certainly more operatic (Marilyn Horne's "Urlicht" alone is enough to make you swoon) and Klemperer's is more Germanic. However, after spending a considerable amount of time with these other recordings, I returned to the Bernstein today and found myself completely (and appropriately) overwhelmed. The non-stop outpouring of emotions is splendid. The brass in the New York Philharmonic has a full range of dynamic emotion; on the sweet side, especially the cantabile trumpet in the Scherzo and the trombone in the last movement, and on the forceful the horn calls in the last movement. The percussion is practically flawless and certainly bold. (The... Read more
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful The definitive performance, October 28, 2006 By This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Audio CD) Like several others who have written reviews here, I, too, was in the audience when this concert was recorded. Unlike the others, I have yet to hear the cd, although I've spent nearly 20 years wanting to hear it and to experience that evening again. It was, by far, the single most powerful musical experience of my life. Just thinking of it brings back the tremendous emotions of that night in April 1987.
Allow me to add some things that no one else who was there has mentioned. Not only were we informed beforehand that the concert was being recorded -- can't say that I remember being given cough drops -- I must say I was in a daze afterward and have been ever since -- but we knew that at the end of the concert, Bernstein would be given the Albert Schweitzer Music Award.
Despite rather extreme poverty, I had treated myself to the concert as a 32nd birthday present to myself. It was worth far far more to me than the month of peanut butter sandwiches that followed... Read more
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful Mahler power., June 20, 1999 By A Customer
This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Audio CD) Leonard Bernstein made the Mahler symphony cycle his own: he re-discovered it, performed it, explained it, and brought about a well deserved revival for the 20th century's greatest symphonist and composer. The Second Symphony is one of Mahler's--and Bernstein's--most important pieces (some may argue most important), and this recording shows just how well LB comprehended the scope of this work. The opening of this symphony needs to be a fierce ball of energy, and that is just what happens here. From the first attack, the NYPO blasts of into one of the most powerful pieces of music ever written. I would love to have been able to have been in Avery Fischer Hall when this was performed: that enormous "fff" ritenuto in the middle of the 1st movement must have blown the roof off the place. The second movement is delicately done; a lovely, elegant reading like none I've ever heard. The Scherzo is just that; an orchestral setting of a "Wunderhorn" song... Read more
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| 44 of 44 people found the following review helpful Romantic intensity pushed to the limits, This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Audio CD) I made the investment of buying the complete Bernstein Mahler cycle a number of years ago. Since then, I have found better recordings of a few (Abbado's fourth, Boulez's first), and certainly different recordings of the second, but none that are so romantic and intense. Abbado's is perhaps a bit more faithful to the score and certainly more operatic (Marilyn Horne's "Urlicht" alone is enough to make you swoon) and Klemperer's is more Germanic. However, after spending a considerable amount of time with these other recordings, I returned to the Bernstein today and found myself completely (and appropriately) overwhelmed. The non-stop outpouring of emotions is splendid. The brass in the New York Philharmonic has a full range of dynamic emotion; on the sweet side, especially the cantabile trumpet in the Scherzo and the trombone in the last movement, and on the forceful the horn calls in the last movement. The percussion is practically flawless and certainly bold. (The... Read more 42 of 43 people found the following review helpful The definitive performance, By This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Audio CD) Like several others who have written reviews here, I, too, was in the audience when this concert was recorded. Unlike the others, I have yet to hear the cd, although I've spent nearly 20 years wanting to hear it and to experience that evening again. It was, by far, the single most powerful musical experience of my life. Just thinking of it brings back the tremendous emotions of that night in April 1987.Allow me to add some things that no one else who was there has mentioned. Not only were we informed beforehand that the concert was being recorded -- can't say that I remember being given cough drops -- I must say I was in a daze afterward and have been ever since -- but we knew that at the end of the concert, Bernstein would be given the Albert Schweitzer Music Award. Despite rather extreme poverty, I had treated myself to the concert as a 32nd birthday present to myself. It was worth far far more to me than the month of peanut butter sandwiches that followed... Read more 26 of 27 people found the following review helpful Mahler power., By A Customer This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 2 (Audio CD) Leonard Bernstein made the Mahler symphony cycle his own: he re-discovered it, performed it, explained it, and brought about a well deserved revival for the 20th century's greatest symphonist and composer. The Second Symphony is one of Mahler's--and Bernstein's--most important pieces (some may argue most important), and this recording shows just how well LB comprehended the scope of this work. The opening of this symphony needs to be a fierce ball of energy, and that is just what happens here. From the first attack, the NYPO blasts of into one of the most powerful pieces of music ever written. I would love to have been able to have been in Avery Fischer Hall when this was performed: that enormous "fff" ritenuto in the middle of the 1st movement must have blown the roof off the place. The second movement is delicately done; a lovely, elegant reading like none I've ever heard. The Scherzo is just that; an orchestral setting of a "Wunderhorn" song... Read more |
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