COMPOSERS: Mahler
LABELS: Fnac
WORKS: Symphony No. 4
PERFORMER: Heather Harper (soprano)Berlin RSO/Lorin Maazel
CATALOGUE NO: 642314 ADD (1969)
Maazel’s unhurried, wistfully captivating way with Mahler’s Fourth is best sampled in his glowing VPO performance from Sony; full price, but worth every penny! This 1969 Berlin recording misses the mark, with variable sound and several glaring orchestral anomalies, including an unforgivable split note in the trumpets as the gates of paradise swing open at the climax of the slow movement. Heather Harper is in fine voice, though she is no match for Felicity Lott, on Franz Welser-Möst’s extraordinary mid-price version for EMI Eminence, still the outright winner for collectors on a budget. Michael Jameson
Mahler: Symphony No. 4
Maazel’s unhurried, wistfully captivating way with Mahler’s Fourth is best sampled in his glowing VPO performance from Sony; full price, but worth every penny! This 1969 Berlin recording misses the mark, with variable sound and several glaring orchestral anomalies, including an unforgivable split note in the trumpets as the gates of paradise swing open at the climax of the slow movement. Heather Harper is in fine voice, though she is no match for Felicity Lott, on Franz Welser-Möst’s extraordinary mid-price version for EMI Eminence, still the outright winner for collectors on a budget.
Our rating
3
Published: January 20, 2012 at 2:31 pm