Tony Duggan wrote:

>Bernstein in Mahler is too "idiosyncratic".  I would also add far too
>personally involved to the extent that his idiosyncrasy and involvement
>becomes irritating in a short time and annoying over longer.
>
>There can be few conductors who knew the Mahler symphonies better than
>Bernstein.  Few who loved them more too.  And here might lie the problem.
>I think Bernstein loved the Mahler symphonies almost to death, even seeing
>them as a way of working out his own neuroses.

I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment.  I am no psychologist, but
I think Bernstein, from time to time got EXCESSIVELY neurotic.  He did
Tchaikovsky's Pathetique at Blossom Music Center many years ago (with NYPO)
that was SO slow the winds had difficulty playing in tune.  It timed out
finally at close to an hour.  Self-indulgence to this extent is, to my
mind, pathological.

I also think Mahler is applauded in a slightly patronizing way as the
highly neurotic emotionally overcharged musical genius whose music is
merely an "emotional bath." The emotional trajectory of his music often
belies the underlining organic concept of structure and thematic linkages
between movements that is almost "classical" in its rigor.

The new Cleveland/Dohnanyi recording does not wallow in emotionalism yet
it never lacks for drama or power.  It is structurally lucid and clearly
articulated as it probes with weighty strings and stinging brass.  Mahler
is a composer of special significance to Christoph von Dohnanyi.  In the
years that Mahler's music was banned by the Nazis, his father who was a
member of the German Resistance played Mahler recordings.  He was later
imprisoned and killed along with Luthern theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
who was CvD's uncle and godfather.

Elsewhere, Tony wrote:

>In order for a recording of Mahler's Ninth to succeed it has to face
>competition that could not be stiffer.

The new Cleveland Mahler Ninth may not be the definitive recording, but it
is meets the competition head-on with a performance that grabs you at the
throat and forces you to interact.

Mark