Mahler: Symphony No. 1 "Titan" / Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs Of A Wayfarer)

Album review

When Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra's performance of Mahler's First Symphony was first released on RCA in 1969, it was billed as the first recording of the complete five movement version of the score "with the long-lost original second movement ‘Blumine' (flower piece)." That was almost true: it was the first major label recording with a major conductor and orchestra because the first recording of the complete five movement version with "Blumine" was actually made by Frank Brief and the New Haven Symphony a year earlier. Be that as it may, for most Mahlerians, Ormandy's recording was a kind of revelation, that is to say, it revealed a perfectly pleasant movement nowhere near on the same level of inspiration as the rest of the work which Mahler was entirely correct in discarding for the revised version. Nevertheless, for the rabid Mahler enthusiast, any previously unheard Mahler was mandatory Mahler and Ormandy's performance acquired a certain cache at least among the cognoscenti.

Re-released nearly forty years later on RCA's ‘Classic Library" series, Ormandy's five movement First retains its cache because while there have been a few more recordings of "Blumine" in context, none of them have improved upon Ormandy's performance. At the high summer of their time together, Ormandy and the Philadelphia turned in an passionate and polished performance of the First along with a refined with slightly sentimental performance of "Blumine." Although rabid Mahler enthusiasts may have other performances they prefer of the standard four movement version -- either of the extravagantly emotional Bernstein performances probably heads the list -- there is no substitute for hearing the work with "Blumine" attached. The coupling of Frederica von Stade and Andrew Davis' marvelously energetic and wonderfully evocative 1978 recording of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen is absolutely apt because, as Mahlerians know, the composer drew on these songs for the First's thematic material.

RCA's stereo sound sounds crisp, clean, clear and far better on CD than it did on the original LP which, given the low standards of vinyl at the time, was invariably warped or riddled with surface noise.

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