Mahler: Symphony Nos. 1 and 3 Boston Symphony Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf (RCA High Performance 09026-63469-2).Mahler: Symphony Nos. 1 and 3 Boston Symphony Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf (RCA See RCA connector and video/TV history. High Performance 09026-63469-2) RCA is reaching back into its vaults and releasing older performances, and reaching into its bag of technical tricks to present them in the best possible sonic light. In its new "High Performance" series of releases, the recordings are "digitally remastered in Weiss 24/96 technology using a customized Studer transport with Cello cello or 'cello: see violin. cello or violoncello Bowed, stringed instrument, the bass member of the violin family. Its full name means “little violone”—i.e., “little big viol. electronics and universally compatible UV22[TM] Super CD encoding See encode. ." When you think of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Boston Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1881 by Henry Lee Higginson, who was its director and financial backer until 1918. The orchestra performed at the Old Boston Music Hall for nearly 20 years until Symphony Hall was built in 1900; its concerts continue to be held , you think of a warm, velvety vel·vet·y adj. vel·vet·i·er, vel·vet·i·est 1. Suggestive of the texture of velvet; soft and smooth: velvety skin. 2. sound, and that is what is achieved here. The three-decades-old recording (the 1st was recorded in 1962, the 3rd in 1966) sounds pretty good in this incarnation. Seeing the "HP" on the front cover, inside cover, and the discs themselves surely brought to my mind that eminent editor and long-time RCA sound advocate, Mr. Harry Pearson Harry Eyre Pearson was a first class cricketer who played 4 matches for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1878 and 1880. A right arm round arm bowler, who bowled both pace and spin, he took 5 wickets at 18 with a best of 4 for 37 against Surrey CCC. , and I could not help but wonder whether the producers of this series thought the same thing, or whether they have ever thought about producing a "Kinetic kinetic /ki·net·ic/ (ki-net´ik) pertaining to or producing motion. ki·net·ic adj. Of, relating to, or produced by motion. kinetic pertaining to or producing motion. Wavelength Normalized" series of recordings when even better recording technology becomes available in the future. We shall see ... Most Mahler fans will already own versions of these symphonies, and this is where the whole premise of this release starts to break down, because Leinsdorf has never been mentioned as a great Mahler conductor; indeed, the performances on this disc sound pretty routine, and to be honest, a "routine" performance of the Mahler 3rd -- the longest symphony written by a major composer (a fact painfully well known to our own KE) -- means that the listener is going to be in for a long evening. The best is the enemy of the good, and in terms of both performance and sound quality, this Leinsdorf/RCA set is easily bettered in the 1st by Boulez/DG and Judd/Harmonia Mundi, and in the 3rd by Salonen/Sony and Lopez-Cobos/Telarc. RCA has done an excellent job of transferring these performances to compact disc, but there is just not enough musical excitement to make this release recommendable.--KWN |
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