Comments on On An Overgrown Path: Mahler with such human warmth and soul

More excellent Barbirolli Mahler recommendations h...

2008-01-23T12:12:00.000Z

More excellent Barbirolli Mahler recommendations here -

http://wagnerite.blogspot.com/2008/01/barbirollis-mahler.html

Mahler and Barbirolli were also both Roman Catholi...

2008-01-23T12:11:00.000Z

Mahler and Barbirolli were also both Roman Catholics. Barbirolli by choice, Mahler by convenience to qualify him for his appointment at the Vienna Court Opera in 1897.

David, thanks for that. Interesting that heart con...

2008-01-15T22:27:00.000Z

David, thanks for that. Interesting that heart conditions afflicted both by Mahler and Barbirolli.

In 1963, the year before Mahler 9 was recorded, Barbirolli was diagnosed as suffering from arterio-sclerosis, with sclerosis of the artoric valve of the heart.

He died of a major heart attack on July 20, 1970 after rehearsing Britten's Sinfonia da Requiem and Beethoven's Eroica.

Glad you mention this recording. The third appeara...

2008-01-15T22:13:00.000Z

Glad you mention this recording. The third appearance of that "weak heart" motif (ie the first thing you hear in the symphony; it's followed by a vaguely Chinese sequence of 4 notes), in the latter part of the 1st movement, is just about the most shattering sound on record.

Thanks for alerting me to the Maderna recording. I...

2008-01-15T17:37:00.000Z

Thanks for alerting me to the Maderna recording. I ordered it from Amazon right after reading your article. I subscribe to the notion that one can never have too many Mahler Ninths, so I can't wait to hear his interpretation.

I agree about the Barbirolli too. His recording (on EMI's GROC label - sounds great to me, but I can't compare it with the original CD pressing to see if the sound has been afffected by the remastering) was the first Mahler 9that I heard, and despite having about a dozen now, I still always come back to Barbirolli as my favorite. (His Mahler Fifth and Sixth are also very high on my list of performances of that symphony - especially the 1967 Sixth with the New Philharmonia Orchestra).