Another selection of diverse works from my library.
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You may gather I am “dredging the archives” testing (admiring !!) my new Headphones this is a 1972 recording but wow
PS an intellectual is someone who can listen Mozart’s Musical Joke and not think of the Horse of The Year Show 
(VERY Brit Joke)
Substitute Eine Kleine Nachtmusic and University Challenge even more Brit
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What a very interesting and astonishing new release!
Live performance!
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With period instruments!
And now a second new release, very very interesting!
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@Stefan_Weiss thanks for sharing the album - I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would.
The album liner notes describe the period instruments as artfully (painstakingly?) reconstructed and that they were the same models used by the Vienna Philharmonic during Mahler’s own tenure as its director. If you listen carefully, the gut strings, wooden mutes, near-vibrato-free winds, and audible portamento recreate a sound that’s not commonly heard today.
The following 7 minute YouTube video shows the Mahler Academy Orchestra performing. I don’t know if the venue is Kulturzentrum Toblach, where the album was recorded in 2024. If so, it’s nice way to visualize the recording with my eyes closed.
The liner notes mention the einfach kompliziert! podcast hosted by cousins Philipp von Steinaecker (conductor) and Thomas von Steinaecker (writer/filmmaker). There they get into more of Mahler’s biography:
Thomas: With the Ninth Symphony, what captivates people about Mahler isn’t just the music - it’s also the person and his biography behind it. That’s why I was so keen on doing the Ninth for instance. I find it unimaginable that he wrote it at my age.
Philipp: Yeah.
Thomas: He died at 50. In photos he looks like he could be 60, but he died at 50 and wrote this symphony when he was, what, 48?
Philipp: 48, yeah.
Thomas: That’s incredible. And his biography is captivating because it was marked by immense tragedy, especially right before he began writing the Ninth. We’ll have to talk about that, as it led to a lot of misunderstandings.
Philipp: Absolutely. Looking at his development briefly, those first four symphonies were partly based on German early Romanticism, set to text from Brentano’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn - a kind of escapism or reconnecting with folk spirit - yet packed with deep philosophical ideas influenced by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. He was crafting these grand worldview drafts about how everything connects: the role of humanity, God… It’s wise and deeply personal. He wasn’t just copying Strauss’s Zarathustra, but forging his own perspective into vast symphonies. In your late twenties or early thirties, when you realize you’re not 17 anymore and have read a bit of life, you dare to put forward those big theses. You hear that intellectual, philosophical optimism in those early works. Then, starting with the Fifth Symphony, while those themes remain, he begins infusing his own biography directly into the music. It’s no longer just “This is God, this is death,” but “Where do I stand in all this?” Right before the Fifth, he had a near-death experience that threw him off course, making him feel he had to rethink everything. From then on, his pieces are an alluring mix of philosophy and biography - continuing right up to his last completed work, the Ninth [emphasis mine]. Biography is crucial here, and we’ll delve into it. I know you have some reservations, but I’ll also try to talk a bit about the philosophy, about Schopenhauer, even if it sounds a bit pretentious, because delving into it recently opened up brand-new pathways into this music for me, especially the Ninth, and I’m eager to share that with you and everyone.
The liner notes clarify that on February 24th 1901, “Mahler conducts Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Musikverein in the morning and Die Zauberflöte at the Hofoper in the evening. Immediately after the performance he suffers acute intestinal bleeding and has to undergo emergency surgery. The bleeding is stopped, but it was a close call; the surgeon tells him that he has been only half an hour away from death.”
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This won Solti one of his 31 Grammys for Best Orchestral Performance (1975). It also won Best Classical Album engineering/production.
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Schumann exclaimed “what is left for us to write”. Who am I to argue? Bernstein’s personal favorite of all his works. One cannot help but play air conductor.
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This has been a favourite of mine since the early 1990s when I worked in South Africa and had the Brendel Haydn set lent to me by a colleague. Wonderful pianism which engenders an extraordinary sense of calm. Brendel made the Haydn sonatas especially memorable, and despite all the great performances by other pianists, I think his set stands head and shoulders above the rest.
I bought it twice !! Some “gentleman” decided my CD’s were interesting so he pinched them
I rebought quite a few but a nice time for reflection
Where were you in SA, I am in Fourways JNB
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I moved to SA in 1993 and stayed until 2000, living in Irene, and working in JHB with a large accounting firm. My collection of CDs was one of my prized possessions, so I feel your pain. No Amazon or streaming in those days! As you will recall, working in SA was far from peaceful, so my recourse was classical music on cassette and later on CD. I remember listening to Bruckner motets while working in the Lesotho Sun hotel, and listening to the late Jessye Norman singing Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss (wonderful singing), while drinking a beer and watching the sun set over the Orange Free State. Those were the days!
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93 must have been interesting I arrived after in 96 !!
Did you ever find CD Warehouse in Rosebank, that place nearly bankrupted me
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I remember it well. Also a very good specialist record store in Rosebank that educated me on World music - Cuban, African, Fado, Cape Verde etc. I miss the days when you could learn about music from an enthusiastic specialist store owner.
