Mitch Friedfeld replies to my rave about the Dohnanyi Mahler 9:

>Dohnanyi brought the Clevelanders here to Washington last spring for Mahler
>9.  Unfortunately, I missed it.  The Washington Post critic, Tim Page, was
>equally laudatory.  He termed it as a non-interventionist, non-over-the-top
>interpretation, one that let the music speak for itself.  Would you agree
>with that?

Kind of.  One could take that as damning with faint praise, although I'm
sure Page meant something else.  After all, if anyone could let the music
speak for itself, most people would, and yet it seems to be rather hard
to do.  I'd rather say that it's an elegant, eloquent reading, certainly
emotional, but not in a way that draws attention to the conductor.
Dohnanyi focusses firmly on the music, and yet it's more than a coldly
technical read-through, even at a high level.  I guess I'd say that I
want someone to speak that well at *my* funeral.

Steve Schwartz