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Interesting. Those two Mahler Symphonies are my least favorite of his works. I find his writing in the 7th to be uninteresting, and no matter what conductors try to do, the banal bombastic finale is just totally out of place. As for the 8th, it strikes me as overblown. While it has its moments...

Sathyan, Bad news on opera DVDs: Unitel's parenty company Kirch Media has filed for bankruptcy, and Universal Music (DG, Decca and Philips) chose not to renew their licensing contract with them, so we probably won't see Unitel's vast catalogue of opera and orchestral recordings for a long...

ThomasC, That's a bit of a broad question. What did you have in mind? Baroque Opera? 19 C? Italian? German? Comic? Serious?

The Theme from Gladiator was pretty much lifted note for note from Holst's The Planets. Best original soundtrack composer? Sergey Prokofiev or Bernard Herrmann.

I'm up for discussing 17C and early 18C music (essentially pre Bach).

Strangley, Kubelik remains an overlooked Mahler conductor (probably because of the poor sound quality of his DG cycle and that his cycle has largely only been available in the UK and Japan). Putting opinion aside, from a critical/analytical standpoint, his recording of the 1st Symphony has...

Justin Doring, Out of the hundred some Mahler recordings I own, only maybe 20% are digital recordings. Despite all the recordings that are being turned out today (who isn't recording a cycle right now?), many of them remain unintersting. In my opinion, the recordings by Walter, Barbirolli...

Personally I can't stand Solti's Mahler (and him as a conductor in general). I find that he conducts Mahler as if it were Bruckner or Wagner, big and loud. Mehta's 2nd with the VPO on Decca is pretty good. If you prefer a low key 2nd, rhythmically tight, without the drama Lenny and Rattle...

Agreed. However, most recordings don't do full justice to Berlioz's vision. John Eliot Gardiner's period instrument recording (recorded in the very place the symphony premiered) is quite a roller coaster ride. You haven't heard the Dies irae untill you've heard it with the serpent and...