Symphonie Nr. 8 H- Moll D 758 Unvollendete- Allegro Moderato
Andante Con Moto
Recently Deceased Conductor Carlo Maria Giulini Had a Long and Distinguished Career and Many Regard his Years at the Helm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Among his Most Inspired. Both Works Receive Appropriately Expan... more »sive Readings with Giulini Taking Great Care in Drawing Out the Orchestral Sonorous and Chromatic Potential. Giulini's Judicious Moderate Tempos Particularly in the Mahler, Are Especially Well Suited to the Composers Spiritual Grand Plan. Deutsche Grammophon's Sound is Remarkably Good with Exceptional Presence and Detail.« less
Recently Deceased Conductor Carlo Maria Giulini Had a Long and Distinguished Career and Many Regard his Years at the Helm of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Among his Most Inspired. Both Works Receive Appropriately Expansive Readings with Giulini Taking Great Care in Drawing Out the Orchestral Sonorous and Chromatic Potential. Giulini's Judicious Moderate Tempos Particularly in the Mahler, Are Especially Well Suited to the Composers Spiritual Grand Plan. Deutsche Grammophon's Sound is Remarkably Good with Exceptional Presence and Detail.
"This recording is usually overlooked among contemporary reviewers and many collectors. But it is - in fact, I would like to say - one of the very best recordings of Mahler's ninth symphony ever. In my view, it belongs to the same leage as Barbirolli's, Klemperer's, and Walter's interpretations of this work, in being both a personal testimony and and an objective, clear presentation of Mahler's most demanding score. Giulini's grasp of the overall structure and his attention to particular details are impressive. He is supported by the stunning playing of Chicago Symphony Orchestra in top form. And the recording quality is superb. Moreover, for collectors impressed by awards it can be mentioned that Giulini's account has received a whole bunch: Grand Prix du Discophile Repertoire 1977, Prix Mondiale du Disque, Montreux 1977, Record Academy Prize, Tokyo 1977, International Record Critics Award 1977, Deutscher Schallplatenpreis 1978, Grand Prix International du Disque 1978, Grammy Award 1978 and, finally, the Grand Premio del Disco "Ritmo" 1978. This incarnation of the recording is coupled with a very fine interpretation of Schubert's unfinished symphony. It is as good as the Mahler piece.Strongly recommended - what else?"
Warmth and coolness simultaneously
Paul Bubny | Maplewood, NJ United States | 07/23/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Giulini manages to be coolheaded about this wrenching and massive score while allowing some northern Italian/southern Austrian warmth to infiltrate it. It is in fact less of a heart-on-sleeve performance than Barbirolli's, let alone any of Bernstein's, but the performance's architectural splendor is thoroughly convincing--overcoming slight reservations that may creep in when looking at the total timing on the first movement (31.5 minutes, or two minutes slower than the already leisurely Bernstein/Concertgebouw on the same label). In this approach he is actually aided by the Chicago Symphony, a great orchestra whose sound is normally inappropriate for Mahler. By the way, both the original LPs and the first CD release were marred by a weird, unnatural vibrato effect in some string passages, but the remastering for DG's "The Originals" series fixes this. Fortunately."
Lest we forget
Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 01/28/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After a recent review of the Boulez recording of the Mahler 9th Symphony a friend inquired about my response to the Giulini recording of this powerful farewell work, and thanks to that inquiry I brought out this older recording issued in 1977, originally on two discs, a recording with the poet of the baton Carlo Maria Giulini conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a performance that won about every prize available for recorded music. I have listened to little since that moment.
Though it is now amazing to see the number of entries here at Amazon.com of this difficult Mahler work, there are few that approach the inherent honesty of Giulini's approach to this at times puzzling work. But from the opening bars of the first movement it is apparent that Giulini is in tandem with Mahler's troubled yet poetic spirit. The phrasing is a consistent appreciation of the question/answer dialogue Mahler created in the orchestration. Gone are the confusing tempi changes apparent in other conductor's struggle with this work. Giulini just relaxes and lets the idealism and the turmoil wage their own transitory struggles and in doing so he opens the windows of clarity to let in the sun that bathes this paean to dying.
In the second and third movements Giulini, abetted by the superb playing of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in its finest days, lets the landlers dance and the rondos burlesque as if inhaling the last of worldly delights before the final submission to fate that lifts the final movement into an ethereal range unmatched by other interpretations. This is conducting and innate communication with the soul of the music and the composer.
This remastered recording includes a profound reading of the Schubert 8th symphony, but save that for another day. This Mahler 9 is an experience to savour by itself. Grady Harp. January 2005"
Another loving Giulini performance.....
DAVID A. FLETCHER | Richmond, Va United States | 02/15/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I remember loving this Mahler 9th in its original 2-LP box set incarnation back when I was in college. The Chicago Symphony play like gods, with their world's-best brass displaying a rainbow of color and texture. Giulini encourages a singing tone from the first violins, very much his trademark. It is a beautifully played, loving performance, rich in detail.
Having said the above, it also has to be stated that things move rather slowly. Not in the glacial manner of, say, Celibidache at his most agogic. The best way to describe Giulini's approach would be "impassionedly measured." Almost Brucknerian. Which, in many passages, is not a bad thing. I hear scoring details in this recording that most conductors just blow through. All that's missing, really, is a bit more accelerando where Mahler indicates it, those implied tempo accents that indicate that "all is not well." There is darkness and struggle in Mahler, even when he sings sweetly. The trick is to convey that without sounding overly histrionic or cartoonish, and at the same time allow Mahler to emotionally turn on the proverbial dime when the music calls for it. Giulini misses some of that, though not too much.
Lest I sound like I'm damning Giulini's Mahler 9 with faint praise, let me assure you that this isn't the case. I'd put it firmly within my own second tier of preferred performances, and one that I wouldn't want to be without. It's beautifully remastered, a bit light in the bass end, but amazingly realistic in timbre and presence, particularly those awesome Chicago brass players. Giulini's attention to scoring detail is not the result of overplayed highlighting; the singing melodic line is never subservient to the development of an obscure "inner voice." My own preferences, though (and recordings of the Mahler 9th seem to be a crucible for classical critics, with cat-calls aplenty from those that disagree), run towards both Karajan readings, the Bernstein/Berlin, and Barbirolli's outing with the same orchestra. And, I eagerly await the 9th's appearance in Michael Tilson Thomas' cycle with the San Francisco Symphony.
The Giulini/Chicago Mahler 9 isn't my first choice, but it's certainly one that I enjoy on its own terms."
Track Listings (6) - Disc #1
