I was stunned to open the new Gramophone and find, without fanfare, a
review of a new Decca Mahler 8th.
Before I even read the review, I bet myself $35.99 that it would go
something like this:
(a distillation:) "technically assured and polished...a star-studded
cast...and yet--a curiously earthbound performance...."
Well, I owe myself $35.99. Whether the above is a disease of modern
performers or modern critics, I don't know. In any case--Mahlerians out
there--say it ain't so!
John Smyth