Tony Duggan wrote:

<<Directed at Deryk, I know, but he won't be surprised if I come in
also.  Hard to name one but no one will be surprised if I opt for Jascha
Horenstein.  He satisfies me in Mahler more and on more occasions than any
other conductor of that composer.  There are others but his stands out for
me and always has.>>

Deryck Barker wrote:

<<Indeed.  Horenstein in Mahler (and many another composer) is rather like
Solomon in Beethoven.>>

I have to admit to being a complete novice as far as Mahler is concerned -
albeit an appreciative one, I hope - and the name of Jascha Horenstein means
nothing at all to me. If it is quantifiable at all, for what reason do you
prefer his recordings? And on which label are they available - I've never
seen any in our local record shop, although the classical selection is not
superb in  terms of major labels. There is a good selection of Naxos
recordings, but obviously one doesn't look there for the famous conductors
(although that said, I did manage to pick up a Rachmaninov composer-pianist
set of the four Piano Concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody for only 10 - a
bargain even if the sound is a bit dicey at times!) and the remainder is
mostly "classical chart" compilations of excerpted movements, and flagship
series of the majors, e.g. the Decca Legends, DG Originals, etc. allthough
they'll probably have changed within the month as some new gimmick catches
on......

On the subject of Decca Legends, I was surprised to see that Bruno Walter
figures nowhere on your list of recordings - I have always found his
interpretations to be particularly insight-ful (I don't think that's a
word....but there we go:-). The Decca Legends reference is to the
recording of Das Lied which, according to their latest release has been
remastered to the 96kHz standard or somesuch jargon, and will shortly be
available. The Solti 8th on the same series also caught my attention,
although I find a couple of passages a bit underpowered.

And Deryck continued.....

<<Put a gun to my head and this would be my preferred cycle; I've allowed
myself 2 choices for some.

   5     Inoue (the best 5th Barbirolli never conducted)

I'm not quite sure what the bracketed bit means:-) but I have borrowed the
Barbirolli 5th from a friend, and I found it a bit wearing to listen to. The
tempi never seem to be quite right, the whole seems a bit "baggy", if you
will, for the tense, acerbic nature of the work. On the other hand, I went
into Derby a while ago whilst feeling slightly skint, and purchased a
recording by Sir Charles Mackeras for 4.99 to replace a rather battered old
tape (I can't recall the conductor at the moment) and found it much better,
although it falls down in the second section of the first part (Sturmisch
bewegt, mit grosster Vehemenz). Some people are never satisfied.........

To continue with the thread that started this off, and further demonstrate
my naivete on this particular front, I was mildly wondering why it is that
"angels fear to tread" in the area of Mahler and Karajan. Of course, fools
like me just walk in, but......

Is there some unfortunate historical antecedent that makes this a bit pas
comme il faut (as in Schuricht's Das Lied recording with the dubious
aleatory feature of a Nazi activist's anti-semitic [Mahler being a Jew, of
course] interjection of "Deutschland, uber alles, Herr Schuricht"!) or is
the style just a bit off? I find - particularly in the Sixth Symphony - that
Karajan's skill at bringing out melodic lines (Mahler himself said that his
way of writing was naturally Bach-like, i.e. polyphonic) and rhythmic
impetus and drive really lend the work a new incisive dimension. I'm going
to keep listening, anyway, for the moment, unless Mr. Horenstein can
convince me otherwise......

Sam Kemp

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