Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (2006)

When Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra's performance of Mahler's First Symphony was first released on RCA in 1969, it was billed as the first recording of the complete five movement version of the score "with the long-lost original second movement 'Blumine' (flower piece)." That was almost true: it was the first major label recording with a major conductor and orchestra because the first recording of the complete five movement version with "Blumine" was actually made by Frank Brief and the New Haven Symphony a ... Read More

When Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra's performance of Mahler's First Symphony was first released on RCA in 1969, it was billed as the first recording of the complete five movement version of the score "with the long-lost original second movement 'Blumine' (flower piece)." That was almost true: it was the first major label recording with a major conductor and orchestra because the first recording of the complete five movement version with "Blumine" was actually made by Frank Brief and the New Haven Symphony a year earlier. Be that as it may, for most Mahlerians, Ormandy's recording was a kind of revelation, that is to say, it revealed a perfectly pleasant movement nowhere near on the same level of inspiration as the rest of the work which Mahler was entirely correct in discarding for the revised version. Nevertheless, for the rabid Mahler enthusiast, any previously unheard Mahler was mandatory Mahler and Ormandy's performance acquired a certain cache at least among the... Read Less