This 12-CD set is of obvious interest on two counts -- first, because it assembles all of the classic 1960s vintage Leonard Bernstein recordings of Mahler's symphonies, done during Bernstein's tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic, in one place in some of the best digital remasterings. Second, they're all together here in one very low-priced package, working out to a little over $5 a disc, which is less than half their price as individual releases. Bernstein was the first conductor to record a complete ...
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This 12-CD set is of obvious interest on two counts -- first, because it assembles all of the classic 1960s vintage Leonard Bernstein recordings of Mahler's symphonies, done during Bernstein's tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic, in one place in some of the best digital remasterings. Second, they're all together here in one very low-priced package, working out to a little over $5 a disc, which is less than half their price as individual releases. Bernstein was the first conductor to record a complete Mahler symphonic cycle, a project he pursued between 1960 and 1968, this at a time when there were only seven or eight formal, complete Beethoven symphonic cycles in print or in progress. Just as an example of what the record company catalogs of the era looked like, at the time he started recording this body of music, his label, Columbia Masterworks, had exactly four recordings of Mahler's music in print, the Symphonies No. 1, No. 2, and No. 9 as done by Bruno Walter in the late '50s and...
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