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In the Forum: Musical Discussions
In the Thread: What, no Mahler?
Post Subject: What, no Mahler?Posted by Paul S on: 2/23/2008

Who listens to the Mahler 1, "Titan"?  Me either until, refusing to come down from Kubelik's New World, I re-tried K's Mahler 1, done here with Vienna Philharmonic, some time back.

I talked about my music/sound "Divergence" epiphany on the Playback Listening forum recently, and the knowledge I gained from that incident has since given me better access to more music, including some stuff I have set aside for many years because it is not hi-fi friendly or I simply always had +/- trouble with it before.

No, I still don't get the 3rd movement, but I am surprised and pleased to find out [again] that this can be a noble work, and the recording even sounds pretty good, too.  The LP is London ffrr CM9115.  It has way more bass than I can use and is odd in that it is mono that somehow benefits from being played with a stereo cartridge.  Perhaps it is "binaural".  Nice.  In fact, if your set up can do 20 Hz, you might have some real fun with this.

Kubelik works his hypnosis on the orchestra and the tone is rich for the diverse themes/moods in this divergent work that Kubelik amazingly pulls and keeps together.  This might include the 3rd movement, too, if the electricity were better.

I thought I liked Mahler as a teenager, when concerts were still cheap (and the halls were old and funky).  Maybe I still like it, after all.

Best regards,
Paul S

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