Mahler: Symphony No. 3: Recorded 1969

Meyer (Artist), Mahler (Composer), Barbirolli (Conductor), Halle Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Halle Orchestra
• Conductor: Barbirolli
• Composer: Mahler
• Audio CD (March 23, 1999)
• SPARS Code: ADD
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: BBC Legends
• ASIN: B00000I9W4
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,971 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 1. I. Kräftig. Entschieden

2. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 1. I. Tempo

3. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 1. I. Zeit lassen - a tempo

4. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 1. I. Immer dasselbe Tempo (Marsch). Nicht eilen

5. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 1. I. Tempo primo. Wie zu Anfang

6. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 1. I. Tempo

7. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. II. Tempo di Menuetto. Sehr mäßig

8. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. III. Comodo. Scherzando. Ohne Hast

9. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. III. Sehr gemächlich. Frei vorgetragen. (Wie die Weise eines Posthorns)

10. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. III. Schell und schmetternd wie eine Fanfare - Tempo I. Mit geheimnisvoller Hast

Disc: 2

1. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. IV. Sehr langsam. Misterioso. Durchaus ppp 'O Mensch! Gib acht!'

2. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck 'Bimm Bamm / Es sungen drei Engel'

3. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. VI. Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden

4. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. VI. a tempo. Sehr gesangvoll

5. Symphony No. 3 in D minor: Part 2. VI. Sehr langsam

6. Sir John Barbirolli in Conversation with C.B. Rees (Interview): Youth . Beginnings as cellist

7. Sir John Barbirolli in Conversation with C.B. Rees (Interview): Early conducting career . Conductor of the New York Philharmonic . Re

8. Sir John Barbirolli in Conversation with C.B. Rees (Interview): The Hallé Orchestra . The art of conducting

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent document., September 20, 2001

By 

Carl "cpultz" (Rochester, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3: Recorded 1969 (Audio CD)

While there are some demerits to point out, this is the CD we Mahler and Barbirolli fans have hoped for.

First the caveats. The playing of the Halle Orchestra is variable. It sounds as though each movement was allowed only one take, not a live recording-with-audience, but "live on tape," and though it has a degree of continuity that is rare, I'm sure many players wish they had a second chance at numerous passages. Many important solos do come off well. The big one - the trombone - may be a bit beyond this player's technique. On the other hand, the music is supposed to be elemental and this guy got that better than many finer technicians who deliver too refined an interpretation.

The recording is far better than I'd hoped. Stereo, well balanced, with good bass. The dynamics are generally realistic, though the median level wanders enough to make you unsure just where to set the volume. I found it necessary to adjust frequently (glad to have remote control!), but the variation is not great, and it doesn't get seriously in the way of understanding the performance. I'm sure hiss filtering was applied, and except for some dulling of the top end, it's acceptable. Maybe the master was way too noisy, but I wonder how much of the space in the hall was lost by this processing. All in all, the sound takes you there quite effectively and conveys the performance well.

As to the interpretation: I have not lived with this recording enough to be decided on it's ultimate merit, but I can tell you that it is one of the handful of recordings that reflect a genuine understanding of what Mahler was getting at. The gradual development in sophistication from the beginning to the finale is clear not just in the music as written but in the way it is played. Barbirolli doesn't short the myriad moments of magic, yet he doesn't dawdle, emote or trademark in the manner of a certain noted Mahlerian. (Okay the first NYPO recording is well [not over-] done with spectacular playing and in great sound on the most recent reissue.) The finale is not distended to a painful stretch but instead serves as a musically logical culmination of the piece and still a thing of heart touching beauty.

I put this document alongside the recording by Horenstein as the best the third has received. The LSO plays much better, but Sir John's people are deeply engaged. Barbirolli's might be better recorded (I only know Horenstein's from LPs - when will Unicorn price the CD appropriately? I have the first symphony on CD and it is better than the Nonesuch album, but still not great); Horenstein's is better produced. Both conductors get to Mahler more fully than any others in my experience.

I hate those usually inflated stars, but on the curve, this one does get five.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An elightening document still among the best 40 years later, September 13, 2007

By 

Larry VanDeSande - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3: Recorded 1969 (Audio CD)

Sir John Barbirolli's inspired studio recording of Mahler's huge Symphony No. 3 is a revelation for me. After hearing this music by a handful of conductors, some with big Mahler reputations, this was the first recording that not only fully expressed the composer's passion in a unified document, it also aptly demonstrated the overall scope and dimension of the tri-part score, with its two choral-vocal middle sections surrounded by a pair of purely orchestral halves.

Sir John made this recording with his Halle Orchestra, contralto Kerstin Meyer and a pair of choirs about he time I was graduating from high school. A conductor beloved for his passion, generally slow but neither meandering nor episodic pace in recordings, and dedication to the music of countryman Edward Elgar (Barbirolli was born a cockney Londoner), it is Sir John's patience that allows every aspect of the score made available to us sonically in the first orchestral half, a 33-minute movement divided into 10 tracks on the first CD of this set.

This opening section, labeled labeled Kraftig. Entscheiden, is where nature begin to sprout through the brass section. This long, volatile entrance is followed by sections of whimsical, childlike humor that are contrasted with grosteque musical imagery, Mahler's way of demonstrating nature's development and God's hand in same. The posthorn solo toward the end of this long movement's Sehr gemachlich section is outstanding and touching, setting the scene to end the opening of the repertory's lengthiest symphony, which goes on for more than 90 minutes.

Kerstin Meyer's wide vibrato tends to work against simplicity in the "Das Knaben Wunderhorn" text that opens the choral section. The children's chorus that follows is somewhat unfocused but they sing with much affection and great beauty about meadows, forests, springtime and morning. Mahler's ode to nature could hardly be more fully realized than in this traversal, whose glories are often counted twofold by way of Sir John's deliberate pacing.

The second orchestral half follows, an ode to more of what God and nature tell us. For the first time through this recording I became aware of a direct link to Mahler's predecessor symphony, the "Resurrection" in the Langsam Ruhevoll secitons, where themes began to sound familiar. Later on, one theme even reminded me of a famous moment from Beethoven's "Fidelio". The kinship between this nature and God-derived music and the previous "Ressurection" symphony, a paean to the Christian idea of afterlife, was illuminated and made more tangible for me than ever before.

The playing of the Halle Orchestra is magnificent in this recording. The brass and woodwind sections, in particular, are displayed in great detail and are completely fulfilling in the 1969 recording made in Manchester's Free Trade Hall. While the Halle strings are not Philadelphia's, the all important timpani are also well represented in Sir John's reading. The overall detail, depth and balance is very good and is another in a long time of exceptional recordings from the BBC.

British critic Tony Duggan has reviewed and recommended recordings of all the Mahler symphonies, incluidng this one. His explanations of this symphony about God and nature go into excrutiating details. For an enlightening view of the contents of this or any other Mahler symphony, see http://www.musicweb-international.com/Mahler/index.html

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Storytelling, March 23, 2007

By 

Doug - Haydn Fan (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mahler: Symphony No. 3: Recorded 1969 (Audio CD)

This is something special - perhaps Barbirolli may now be recognized as not only a great Mahler conductor, but the most underrated of all the 20th century podium geniuses. No doubt his leaving the New York Philharmonic for a backwater orchestra played a major role in this underestimating of his great talents.

In this performance we have a near-definitive first movement - not exactly anayltical as some modern versions are, but quite untouched for gripping storytelling. The works closeness to Humperdinck is manifest throughout, but this is a far more sinister and sophisticated depiction of the German Natur. Again, just as Monteux was so amazing in evoking the tale of Scheherazade so Barbirolli manages to produce the musical equivalent of a deep journey into a fantastic world of sprites and darker forces.

Some of you may wonder if that was what Mahler had in mind, but it works for me!

A fabulous recording in a style of music-making lost for ever.