Mahler

[Bryn]

For me, the most problematical is the 7th.
Apparently people started queuing from 6 a.m. to see this particular Prom.

What, no overnighters?

[LMcD]

What, no overnighters?

Not according to My Man From The Independent.

[silvestrione]

On a whim, I looked up the leader, Kirsty Mangan, who has certainly done well professionally. Rather touching to see these players eighteen years ago - one reason I was curious to learn the date of the performance.

However, I think this symphony works least well for me of all of Mahler's.

For the Eighth, you just have to be there at a great occasion, i think, which this certainly was. I queued all afternoon, for the Gallery, and was rewarded with a place on the rail, so at least I could see! During the afternoon, after the rehearsal, Rattle wandered down the other side of the road, and one of the young players came to talk to a friend just ahead of me. 'He just stares at you like this, and you have to play your best for him...' he said of Rattle. i think the Guardian reviewer said something lovely and very true, that at the end, the sound filling the hall was 'like something you could bathe in', or similar, the idea of just allowing it to flow over you. There were brass players placed on several levels. Do I now watch the TV version, or keep to my memories? Tricky.

[Cockney Sparrow]

For the Eighth, you just have to be there at a great occasion, i think,...........

Very much agree. And for once, the R Albert Hall is the perfect venue. For me, its quite overwhelming. I've passed opportunities to get in as a chorus guest at a performance. I'd rather be in the audience. Much as I love choral music, and operatic vocalists, its the orchestral ppassage at the very end which is quite searing - as long as they have the separate, additional Brass section (preferably in the Gallery - both Boulez and Colin Davis sited them there.....)

For me, Solti's recording is unbeaten, not least because he had a perfect team of soloists. I watched the Rattle Prom repeat and have it saved on Hard Disk, but I get more pure pleasure from an audio recording. I do think that whatever I'm hearing is overlain by my (subconscious?) "memory" of and recalled feelings experienced at live performances.

Which reminds me - I'm in the middle of a book downsizing exercise (got to catch the Oxfam bookshop at the right time when they have capacity to take the relinquished books) - my only book purchase on the re-opening of the local Waterstones was Stephen Johnson's book so I must start reading it!