Bernstein/Concertgebouw: Mahler Symphony No. 9 - DG 419 208-1 (2LP box set)

Box NM- / LPs NM- This beautiful and rare 2LP box set from Deutsche Grammophon (419 208-1, West German pressing, white circle label, DDD stereo) features Leonard Bernstein’s extraordinary account of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, recorded ‘live’ with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the spacious acoustics of the Grote Zaal, the Concertgebouw in June 1985 (producer: Hanno Rinke / recording supervision: Hans Weber / engineer: Klaus Scheibe). Wrote the outstanding critic Simon Thompson for MusicWeb-International: “Many critics have great problems with Bernstein’s 1985 Concertgebouw recording of the Ninth but I am not one of them. True, Bernstein’s finest recording of this work is his 1979 live recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, the only occasion on which he conducted them. Happily this has recently been reissued on one CD as a DG Original and it demands to be heard, in spite of its imperfections. Don’t dismiss the 1985 version, though: it’s far from perfect but has a lot to recommend it. The