1. Home
  2. music
  3. 198834-7401

Haitink Mahler 5 on DECCA Pure Analog

Almost bought this but figured I ask if anyone has heard this reissue. 

From product notes…

For this release Rainer Maillard at Emil Berliner Studios has used the original, four-track quadraphonic master tape to make a new stereo mix sent directly to the cutter head. This preserves a pure analogue path throughout. The Philips engineers of the 1970s would similarly have mixed the four front and rear channels before cutting but this downmix would have resulted in a two-track stereo copy for mastering, whereas here the lacquer is cut directly from a ’live’ mix into stereo from the four Quad channels.
 

Any feedback on the quality of recording and vinyl?

audphile1
audphile1's avatar
audphile1 OP
8,077 posts
 

@rvpiano I’ve made plans to listen to Kondrashin conducting Mahler and Shostakovich this weekend.

dwette
560 posts
 

@audphile1 

 it might not be the worst 5th. But with better choices out there on streaming I would probably listen to it once. 

Oh, it's not my favorite either, but it's maybe not the worst I've ever heard. I have an OG from the Philips Haitink/RBO 16-LP complete box set and should compare sometime. It's still an important performance, since it took Bernstein on Columbia in the US and Haitink on Philips in Europe to revive Mahler's brilliance as a genius symphony composer.

I really like the HvK/Berliner reissue in the DG The Original Source series, but I imagine that is OOP/OOS by now.

mahler123
4,062 posts
 

I really love HvK here.  He really seemed to get the biting irony in III, and his Berlin Phil in full cry was something to behold.

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,428 posts
 

@audphile1 

The one DECCA recording I would get on pure analog is Stravinsky Le Sacre Du Printemps: Solti: Decca Pure Analogue (180g 45RPM Vinyl LP)

I was going to suggest Klaus Makela with the Orchestre du Paris, recorded live in 2022. I bought the vinyl and CD in the same order, but the vinyl was so badly damaged by Decca’s new inner liners that I complained, got my money back and promised to scrap the vinyl.  Now it looks as if the vinyl has been deleted from the catalogue - maybe while Decca gets less destructive liners.

Universal Music Group strikes again

richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
1,428 posts
 

@audphile1 

There is a recent alpha Mahler 5 (on vinyl as well as digital) which has won international awards.  The BBC Magazine review included

I'll go for broke and say I don’t know a better Mahler Fifth than this one, since in addition to Järvi’s care over every dynamic, there’s a sense of live electric charge which makes the ends of the Scherzo and Finale above all hair-raisingly brilliant.

Did you end up buying Mahler 7 from alpha?

More to discover