Don Satz wrote:

>I was reading in ARG a review by Don Vroon of Mahler's 5th symphony
>performed by the London Symphony under the direction of Harold Farberman on
>Vox.  Vroon concluded that the Farberman was the best recording of Mahler's
>symphony.
>
>Given Vroon's nasty opinion of period instrument recordings and his
>penchant for "heart-on-the-sleeve" interpretations, I'm always somewhat
>skeptical of his recommendations.  What's your opinion of Faberman's
>interpretation?

One of my first Mahler recordings was a Vox Box LP set of Farberman's
5th and 6th Symphonies of Mahler.  These performances introduced me to
this great music, something for which I'll remain grateful, but came at
a time when I had no perspective on the music or performances.  A year
or so, I brushed off my scratchy old LPs, made a cassette, and popped it
in a Walkman.  What I heard was so sluggish, turgid, and boring that I
couldn't believe my ears.  To this day I'm suspicious that the batteries
may have been a bit low, thus slowing down the tape speed and negatively
contributing to my listening experience.  So now I can buy the CD and see
for sure!

Farberman's tempos are generally quite slow, so I can't be too sure
about the batteries. At the time, I also listened to the 6th which came
off better (for the record, the andante is played second and there are 3
hammer blows). However, as it is slightly over 80 minutes it might have
a hard time making it to CD as it won't fit on a single disc.

This is a very early digital recording with the London Symphony.  They
also released recordings of Mahler's first, second, and fourth:  1 and 4
can be had on a Vox Box CD set as well as singly (and very cheaply) on the
inhouse Excelsior label in Sam Goody's and MediaPlay stores.  Neither are
particularly memorable, and as mentioned slowness is the norm.  Sound is
decent.  (I've never heard Farberman's second.)

Tim Dickinson
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