Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony 9

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ignore the editorial review. I collect Mahler 9ths for a living, and I think Sinopoli's version is one of the greats, alongside performances by Horenstein, Barbirolli, Klemperer, Bernstein, and Haitink. The score is made crystal clear; innumerable details that normally get lost are audible here. Yet there's no loss of drama or drive. Sinopoli combines the clarity of Boulez with the emotionality of Bernstein, and the two elements support, rather than undermine, each other. My only quibble is that the 2nd movement is taken a bit too fast, without sufficient contrast between tempi, but everything else is superb. Like hearing it for the first time, and considering how many times I've heard it, that's amazing.

This preformance, for all its bredth is fascinating- no Mahler collection is complete without it!

After the masterful entry of the Mahler 8 by Sinoploi, the ninth is a weird animal. His vision is unprecedented and there is much to enjoy in the last movement. Masur with the NYPO has another wondeful last movement. For true Mahlerites, this recording is indispensible. For neophyes, there are more standard (and cheaper) alternatives.