Sunday, 11.1.09, 6:00 am
I Don’t Love Mahler
I don’t love Mahler.
Bruckner, I love. Bach, I revere. Beethoven, I admire. Not Mahler… Mahler is an addiction. Something that, if you catch it, gets in your blood and lives on, indelibly, subcutaneous.
Part of that addiction, something shared by many fellow Mahlerians, is obsessive-compulsive Symphony-collecting disorder. Despite offering just over a dozen important works, Mahler still manages to make for more recordings in my collection than all other composers except Bach and Beethoven. The home-collection must by now comprise Mahler recordings somewhere on the far side of 250, which is itself only a small fraction of the Mahler discography.
Classical WETA has made November “Mahler Month”, which gives me the opportunity to bring my obsession to some productive use. I have been allowed to pick three Mahler cycles, two including Das Lied von der Erde and, if all works according to plan, all three with complete performances of the 10th Symphony. Alongside I will publish short articles on Mahler’s symphonies from the angle of the available recordings. This is a project that has germinated from an innocent request by a music teacher, some four years back, about which recordings of each of the Mahler symphonies—in print and available on single discs—were ‘the best’ to be had. Originally a simple list, it has grown completely out of shape and over the next few weeks I will attempt to cast into manageable form.
Monday will ease Classical WETA listeners in with the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony; the first cycle will begin Tuesday. The first set of Mahler symphonies is the “American Mahler Cycle”, with at least one American participant on the recording—either the conductor or the orchestra or both. The second cycle is made up of my favorite non-American recordings. The third is an ‘integral’ cycle for which I have suggested Michael Gielen’s insightful traversal with the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra.
The “American Cycle” will begin with Bernard Haitink recent recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on its own label, CSO Resound. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Orchestra are represented with the next two symphonies (including Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in the Second Symphony)—all on the label the orchestra founded just for the Mahler cycle. Esa Pekka Salonen leads the LA Philharmonic in the Fourth and is aided by Barbara Hendricks (Sony). Bernstein’s “Frankfurt” Fifth (with the Vienna Philharmonic) displays everything Bernstein’s personal Mahler stands for, including—often for the better—excess.
If we only judged Christoph Eschenbach’s tenure in Philadelphia by the recordings that orchestra (finally, again) made, we’d conclude that everything went swimmingly. It is their gutsy Sixth (Ondine) that will be played. Pierre Boulez leads the finest American orchestra—the Clevelanders—in the Seventh (DG). Bernstein is back for the Eight (DG), also a live recording with the Viennese, this time from Salzburg. Vowel-happy Eiji Oue leads the Minnesota Orchestra in Das Lied (Reference Recordings). Michael Tilson Thomas again conducts the SFSO in the Ninth Symphony and Lopez Cobos (Telarc) conducts the Cincinnati Orchestra in Remo Mazzetti’s performing version of the complete Tenth Symphony. Enjoy! 
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Update:
Two small changes: The Third Symphony will now be the performance with Esa Pekka Salonen conducting the LA Philharmonic (liner notes by Tim Page, btw.) and Das Lied von der Erde will be with Michael Tilson Thomas / San Francisco Symphony instead of Eiji Oue / Minnesota.
This week’s Mahler schedule can also be checked here.
Tuesday, November 3rd, 9PM
Symphony #3 (Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen)
(Also at 4:07PM
Symphony #3, 2nd Movement [San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas])
Wednesday, November 4th
Symphony #1 (Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Bernard Haitink)
Thursday, November 5th
Symphony #4 (Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen)
Symphony #10 (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Jesús López-Cobos)
Friday, November 6th
Symphony #5 (Vienna Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein)
Saturday, November 7th
Symphony #6 (Philadelphia Orchestra/Christoph Eschenbach)
Das Lied von der Erde (San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas)
Symphony #8 (Vienna Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein)
Sunday, November 8th
Symphony #2 (San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas)
Symphony #7 (Cleveland Orchestra/Pierre Boulez)
Symphony #9 (San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson Thomas)