 | Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Buy used from: $9.98 Scherchen's M5 with the ORTF has a badly
mutilated scherzo, but after listening to the 1st mvmnt (with 3 perversely deafening cymbal crashes), this becomes a Mahler of danger.
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 | Mahler: Symphony 7
Schoenberg dubbed the M7, 'The death of romanticism' & that descrip was given abundant life in Scherchen's Toronto M7(M&A).
Scherchen's 50's M7 is not quite painted in the same feverish brush strokes, but a similar spirit prevails.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 1, No. 10: Adagio
Buy used from: $9.22 Scherchen's goose bump inducing funeral march from M1 is straight Poe. The decadent, modernist language of the 10th's adagio is a kindred spirit in Scherchen's world.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Buy used from: $22.99 Most approach Scherchen's M9 with hostility. There's never been a more Klimt-like M9, the inner mvmnts have never sounded so raunchy & the lack of sentimentality in the outer mvmnts requires a strong dispensing of pre-conceived notions.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Buy used from: $17.98 Tahra records, ran by Myriam Scherchen, is a torch bearer in making available an alternative to today's commercialized art.
This M5 with Philadelphia has the longest adagietto I know of. There's no denying it's taxing. Perhaps it should be.
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| Mahler: Symphony No. 3 / Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Tahra has released his Lepzig M3 & an earlier studio 3rd. Lepzig is more erratic, but his vision of this work as a whole is more pronounced & individualistic. This is a forest of expressionist blues.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $44.14 Maderna's M9 is another performance from the world view of Berg and Schoenberg. Listening to Maderna's opening will vividly echo Berg's written commentary.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Buy new: $35.98 / Used from: $27.95 Horenstein's Final M9th begins in a note of
unrelenting pessimism and never lets up.
Don't wait in abated breath for relief.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Buy new: $16.99 / Used from: $8.98 The opening movement of Barenboim's M9 doesn't possess the stained intensity of Scherchen & Horenstein, nor the rapt beauty of Boulez, but his inner movements match Scherchen in sheer raunchiness. This is a M9 to contend with.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 7
Buy new: $16.99 / Used from: $4.95 This M7 had critics lavishing adulatory compliments on the opening & the finale is almost as psychedelic as Scherchen's.
Coming under the influence of Boulez,Barenboim has been dipping into Mahler's world with all the rewards of artistic exploration & discovery.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No.9
Buy new: $33.98 / Used from: $10.99 Bernstein's M9 with the Concertgebouw is a legendary performance with a finale that is as much about the end of all life as it is about Mahler's.
Draining.
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 | Mahler: Symphonie No. 6
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $5.57 Alas, Scherchen's M6 is nowhere to be found (briefly,from Tahra).
Suffice to say, it's all his own and definitely not designer Mahler.
Along with his Mahler 1st, Boulez's Mahler 6th is one of the few that received nearly unanimous praise.
Boulez's 6th does not have Scherchen's rough, jagged quality, but it does leave you feeling as if you've just been bludgeoned to death with an icicle.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection")
Buy new: $16.98 / Used from: $8.37 Scherchen's extinct M2 (MCA) has all the frantic,nervous intensity of an Egon Schiele painting.
Don't give up on Boulez's M2 after listening to the 1st movement, which seems deceptively subdued.
The agenda becomes clear; this is an M2 imbued with light. DeYoung and Schaffer match Boulez's conception to perfection.
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 | Arnold Schönberg: Orchesterstücke; Erwartung; Die Glückliche Hand
Buy new: $18.98 / Used from: $52.39 Scherchen was an early advocate of Schoenberg's music.
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 | Schoenberg: Moses und Aron
Buy new: $13.98 / Used from: $8.04 The Italian fascists roughed Scherchen up after a performance of Moses.
The transfer here is execrable, but it's a worthwhile documentation & an alternative to Boulez & Solti.
Hopefully, this will eventually receive the release it deserves.
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 | Mahler: Symphonie No. 8
Buy new: $18.98 / Used from: $14.91 The Scherchen M8 is yet another oop Tahra.
Mitropoulos was another early Mahler advocate.
Sadly, he has nearly been forgotten.
Virgil Thompson was among those who crucified him when knowledge of his sexual preference became known.
Thompson shouldn't have felt threatened since Mitropoulos specialized in big, dramatic, red blooded music which makes his Berlioz & this M8 essential.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 4 in G
Buy used from: $40.04 Scherchen never performed the M4.
While Horenstein's Mahler 4th is indeed a child's view of heaven, Horenstein reminds us that one must die first to get there.
A Mahler 4th unlike any other.
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 | Mahler: Symphony No. 8; Debussy: 3 Nocturnes; Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnole
Buy used from: $14.64 Stoki is all too easily dismissed these days.
In his early years he was the showman, but underneath was an artist of unequaled catholic tastes From Bach to Schoenberg, Stokowski only knew 'good music and bad' and
premiered more new works than any conductor in history.
Stoki gave the American premiere of the M8 and this recording is possibly the most orgasmic you are likely to encounter.
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