Tony Duggins wrote:

>You can see my own preferences in my Mahler recordings survey with the 4th
>to be found at:
> http://www.musicweb.uk.net/Mahler/Mahler4.htm

Having found time to go back and check this admirable survey out, I must
say I have some questions to ask of Tony, although all in all I tend to
sympathise with his views.  They are vastly preferable to the horribly
myopic ramblings of one DSG in Gramophone magazine.  I am not quite such
a passionate a Mahlerian but I have been listening to him long enough to
have my own thoughts on aspects of his music.

Firstly why is there no mention of Oskar Fried's Mahler 2nd at all in the
review? I know that the recording is acoustic but it is an historically
important document in that Fried conducted the work under Mahler's
supervision.  It also helps explain why Klemperer's and Walter's tempi for
the opening movement are much faster than what one commonly hears today -
listen to Rattle for example.  In fact compared to Fried, Klemperer is his
usual expansive self.  It just so happens that it has become commonplace to
play it even more lugubriously.  Although I have not heard Scherchen in the
2nd, I get the impression that he too adopts a fast tempo for the opening
movement, with menacing staccato interjections from the basses driving the
movement along.

Also I must say I had been hoping to see a slightly more sympathetic review
of Boulez's Cleveland 7th.  I know it lacks tension but it is exquisitely
refined with a lushness such as in the recapitulation of the second subject
of the first movement that is unequalled.  Boulez also tightens up the
structure of the finale to make it very satisfying.  On account of its
refinement it is a performance which grows on you rather than leaping out
and grabbing you and many will get a pleasant surprise to find Boulez
nothing like the stereotype perpetuated by reviewers who have generally
written the review, I fear, long before hearing the performance.

Sorry I have no strong views on the 4th or the 8th, except that in the 8th
I agree with Tony:

>Solti's merciless assault has never impressed me all that much.

The problem with Solti is that with blinkers on he is too obsessed with
applying the same uniformly narrow minded martellato to each passage which
has the misfortune to come his way for him to really be able to step back
and give us a view of the structure of the work as a whole.  Of this I feel
Abbado does a better job in his live performance with the Berlin Phil.

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia