Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, & 10 - Unfinished
This is a fabulous collection: an orgy of great music interpreted greatly. -- --Raymond Tuttle, FanfareThis is an important set. The Ninth is among the best ever made. Throughout, Mitropoulos applies tempo fluctuations and rubato judiciously, leans into waltz and landler movements with a swing not found elsewhere, and always communicates the inner passions that animate this great music. -- --Dan Davis, The Absolute SoundThe Greek-born Dimitri Mitropoulos does not figure largely in the record catalogue. But on the evidence of these electrifying live performances, given not long before his death in 1960, and excellently remastered, he was one of the great conductors of our time. The playing has a lacerating intensity that reminds me of Toscanini -- had Toscanini espoused Mahler's music, instead of spurning it. There is one caveat: Mitropoulos makes cuts in No. 3, some of them quite substantial. How could he? His manifest devotion to Mahler should have precluded it. Yet in rhythmic incisiveness and clarity of texture, in fluidity of tempo, in naked emotional power, he is an ideal Mahler conductor. The performances of No. 5 and No. 6 are particularly wonderful. Mahlerians should swallow their sense of outrage and acquire the set. -- --David Cairns, Sunday Times (London)