Tony Duggan brings one of the Mahler-List's favorite subjects to MCML:

>Bob [Stumpf] puts his finger on the problem.  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.

I have heard Bernstein only in 1, 2, 3, 5 (both NYPO and VPO), 6, and 9.
I agree with you on all counts except for 5.  What exactly is it about the
VPO recording that people find idiosyncratic? When I compare it to my five
other M5's, I don't hear anything that makes me think I'm listening to
"Bernstein 5" rather than Mahler 5.  True, the Adagietto is a bit of a
wallow.  But if I were to walk in on this performance mid-disc, I would
be hard pressed to identify it as belonging to a certain conductor.  I'm
not asking for a bar-for-bar analysis, but one or two examples of
idiosyncracies would be appreciated.

Mitch Friedfeld