The legendary 1972 recording of Mahler’s First Symphony, here beautifully remastered for super-budget release. Haitink conveys all the joy and the angst beneath Mahler’s score and the recording has warmth and bloom.

‘This is the only Das Lied you’ll ever need, and the recorded sound is of demonstration quality’ says ClassicsToday.com on this fabulous recording of Mahler’s symphony/song cycle set to German translations of Chinese poems for mezzo, tenor and a massive orchestra. A 10 (performance)/10 (recording) rating is what it enjoys … as it should!

With its beautiful slow movement, ‘Adagietto’, used in the film ‘Death in Venice’, this symphony achieved immortality and the widest listening public. But the rest of it too is wonderful stuff – dramatic, searing, thrilling. This is also one of its most dramatic performances and a benchmark in the discography of this work.

Marilyn Horne’s plum-tinged mezzo and the music of Mahler are inseparable. So far, only the ‘Fahrenden Gesellen’ songs and the ‘Kindertotenlieder’ have made their way to CD (now deleted), so it is appropriate to collect on a single CD, the three masterpieces all performed by the same artist. The ‘Rückert-Lieder’ make their first appearance on […]

The third volume of The Flagstad Recitals couples music by Wagner and Mahler. Flagstad’s LP of Wagner scenes recorded with Hans Knappertsbusch is complemented by the ‘Todesverkündigung’ from Act II of ‘Die Walküre’ with Sir Georg Solti as well as the ‘Immolation Scene’ from ‘Götterdämmerung’ from a Norwegian broadcast performance conducted by Øivin Fjeldstad. Also […]

Two gargantuan late-Romantic Austrian works are coupled on this very rare recording by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin. The recording had limited release in Germany and this is its first international release. Mahler’s Third Symphony is the longest symphony by any composer to be part of the basic repertoire and, at first, had […]