Mahler Symphony 8
The BBC finally opened its archives and has since been pouring forth generously with gems once only rumored to exist. This performance of Mahler's monumental Eighth Symphony was taped live in London's Royal Albert Hall on March 20th, 1959, and marked only the fourth time it had been performed in London and the first time the great Mahlerian Jascha Horenstein had conducted it. It so stunned the packed hall--nearly 6,000 people attended--that it could be seen as the start of the Mahler revival in England; previously the critic forThe Timeshad written, "We don't want Mahler here." Performed after much rehearsal, but never with all the disparate elements at the same time, this set leaves almost all the other recorded versions in the dust. In excellent mono sound, beautifully remastered, we hear things we never get in Mahler--I won't pick and choose, but suffice it to say that while almost all of this symphony tends to be effective, not all of it alwayssoundsbeautiful; Horenstein and the London Symphony, various soloists, and choruses play it not to stun (as more recent conductors do) but to introduce it. I've heard this work dozens of times, a couple of them live, and this set is the most effective presentation of this complex work I've encountered.--Robert Levine