Amateurism in the Best Sense
Young | CA, USA | 01/19/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Gilbert Kaplan is at best an amateur musician. In fact, he is a wealthy publisher of some finance magazines, not a professional musician by train. However he developed a passion for this particular music and became an authority on this piece. It eventually led him to hire an orchestra and perform this incredibly complex symphony. And here is a proof of his total dedication to this music.
I always thought Mahler had certain feminism in his music no matter how humongous it was. And this reading captures the feminism perfectly, mixed with the symphony's cosmic scale. In the end, it is a most moving, unpretentious account of this work despite tens of other recordings from Bernsteins, Rattles, Maazels, Mehtas, etc..
And as icing on the cake, it has the best sound available. On record it perhaps approaches most closely the heavenly sound Mahler himself envisioned in his head."