1985 re-press of the 1970 recording. Playing now and I'm thinking what a great recording , musically and sonically. If this was the only version of Mahler 5 available to me I wouldn't be unhappy. I do tend to be a fan of Solti's work. I only found out recently that he had a violent temper and was nicknamed the "screaming skull" which was really surprising to me.
I have the Bohm on DG vinyl. Unfortunately it's spoilt by the poor sound and recording quality so much so that it tends to overshadow the actual music. I also have Beethoven's symphony box sets on VD by Daniel Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin and Bernard Haitink/LSO both of which I really like.
From Haitink, a very good version of Tchaikovsky's Manfred symphony. Critic Victor Carr says "Bernard Haitink’s 1980 Manfred was the prize of his Concertgebouw/Tchaikovsky symphony cycle."
Realized tonight that I am not completely happy with any of my Beethoven violin sonata sets and did some research to find this one, which is very highly recommended by many. I am excited for its arrival on Friday!
I'm very glad to hear that, thanks. I know the competition is stiff, but it seemed after reading some discussions elsewhere, reviews, along with some listening on youtube, it seemed that this set was the one for me. I've always loved the Szeryng/Haebler Spring recording, but it seems like they never released a CD or SACD set from them, just an old OOP pair of Philips Duos. For those interested, here is their Spring:
The recordings are also included in the Henryk Szeryng Complete Edition (here), which some of us got for the princely sum of $12 (while today the going price at Amazon is $500 for a used copy).
I found a nice used copy of this set today. I compared it to the Faust set, using youtube, and found that I liked the tone of the violinist on this set a lot more, so I bought this and cancelled my amazon order of the Faust. Now enjoying disc 2. The sound is incredible!
Great news! I just replaced the input tubes in my preamp with no doubter NOS RCA's and now all is handled with purity and aplomb. 4 Star recording now gets 5.
I have so many Beethoven 9ths nowadays that I can't decide a favourite. Among ones I like are Reiner/ CSO on Living Stereo, Schmidt-Isserstedt / VPO on Decca and Solti / CSO also on Decca; with honorable mention to various Klemperer and Karajan versions. Spoilt for choice