Mahler: Symphony No. 1

Gustav Mahler (Composer), Pierre Boulez (Conductor), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: Pierre Boulez
• Composer: Gustav Mahler
• Audio CD (April 13, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B00000IIX2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,610 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Passionate BECAUSE of analytical correctness, September 13, 2000

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (Audio CD)

Pierre Boulez continues to amaze us with each new recording. Listeners long on skepticism as to whether this conducting master of intellectulization of details - the modernist approach - can bury that old data storage. Boulez has managed to breathe life into Bartok, Stravinsky, and now he continues to rediscover Mahler. This recording of Mahler's Titan Symphony is a revelation - in the best sense of the term. The Chicago Orchestra has rarley sounded more brilliant and seems to be totally in synch with Boulez. The result is a sumptuous sounding romantic marvel. Mahler's symphonies can ramble and be disjointed and even sound bombastic in the wrong hands. I feared Boulez would opt for the note perfect, cerebral dissection of Mahler: yes, the score is thoroughly studied and rethought, but the penultimate Romanticism is very much here. Listening to this disc is a sonically, spiritually, and emotionally thrilling experience. And I thought I knew this work before.........! Fasten your seat belts a jump on for a mighty experience.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great performance, great recording !, July 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (Audio CD)

Rarely does one come across a recording as good as the performance, and vice versa. Boulez has done a remarkabke job, and Deutsche Grammophon's 4D audio recording is a landmark in audio recording technology. The thunderous 4th movement of the 'Titan' will knock your socks off !

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars * * * 1/2 - For once Boulez gets it almost right..., August 29, 2005

By 

John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (Audio CD)

Pierre Boulez's Mahler cycle is both frustrating and puzzling. Some of the performances are intense and some are underpowered and uninvolved. This is the most passionate so far, with the mighty Chicagoans blazing away, especially in the brass, which hold back nothing for their conductor. (Just listen to this recording and you'll hear why Bud Herseth is considered one of the greatest trumpet players ever.) The first movement opens suitably mysterious, though I would have preferred a bit slower. (I think Giulini's OOP recording, also with the CSO, is terrific here.) The off-stage brass sounds terrific. In fact, the sound throughout this recording is concert-quality, with a strong you-are-there aspect. This first movement comes off wonderfully, though I must revisit Bernstein's DG recording with the Concertgebow again, which impressed me tremendously when I last listened to it ten years ago. The second movement is a letdown--too smooth and "waltzlike" and not rustic enough. These are country peasants after all. Glib I guess would be a good word for this movement, and compared to some other greats (Kubelik, Horenstein, even Bernstein) this is lightweight. The third movement has the appropriate Yiddish quality, though maybe not enough; it's not as good as Kubelik's incomparable interpretation. Again, there's something glib about Boulez here. He always seems to be above the music he conducts rather than down with it. Because of that, movements that require a certain "humanity" or "spiritual" quality always come up short. But also because of that, movements like the finale of this symphony are right up his alley. Boulez enjoys opening up the heavens and hurling lightning bolts, and he does it well here--maybe a little too well, as there are moments where I think things almost become too unglued, compared to the preceedings. Still, it's a stunning effort, akin to Karajan's tumultuous finale of the Malher 6th (also on DG) and we really feel a sense of transubstantiation at the end, which many Mahler 1sts don't give, despite lots of emotional angst. This is Boulez's most electrifying recording since returning to the podium, in my opinion. Sound, as I said, is top-notch and very "concert-like"--the bloom of the hall is well-captured by DG's engineers. Which brings me to a question: once they ace a particular sound in a particular hall, why can't they always get it right? This is as good as it gets, sonically. For performance, it's still hard to top a lot of good Mahler Firsts out there: Giulini and Kubelik and Horenstein and Bernstein and Mitropoulos and others I'm no doubt forgetting. This one isn't qutie on that level, but it's worth having anyway, and boy, does Bud Herseth shine!