Both Mahler’s First and Third symphonies, originally enjoyed subtitles for their movements. The first movement of the First was one ‘Spring Without End’, the second ‘Under Full Sail’. For the Third, Mahler paid tribute to the ‘Flowers in the Meadow’, the ‘Animals in the Forest’, ‘Man’, ‘Angels’ and ‘Love’, respectively, for its five movements.
Both Mehta recordings here have a real sense of presence and space about them with the elegiac finale of the Third recorded in a single take.
GUSTAV MAHLER
CD1
Symphony No. 3 in D minor
CD 2
Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Maureen Forrester, contralto
California Boys’ Choir
Members of The Los Angeles Master Chorale
Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta
Symphony No. 1 in D major
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
Zubin Mehta
Recording producer: Ray Minshull
Recording engineers: James Lock, Gordon Parry (No. 1); Simon Eadon, James Lock (No. 3)
Recording locations: Binyanei Ha’ooma, Jerusalem, Israel, December 1974 (No. 1); Royce Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, March 1978 (No. 3)
‘Mehta in his years in Los Angeles rarely recorded a performance so authentically Viennese as this Decca account of Mahler’s Third. The crisp spring of the first movement leads to a fruitily Viennese view of the second and a carefree account of the third in which the Wunderhorn overtones come out vigorously. The singing is excellent, and the sharpness of focus of the reading as a whole is impressive, underlined by the brilliant … recording’ Penguin Guide to CDs