London Symphony Orchestra Mahler 8?

[PhilS]

Hi,

Some years ago I was given a cassette (remember those?) of a performance of Mahler's 8th symphony by the LSO and, I believe, Colin Davis. It was the first time I'd heard it and it was absolutely phenomenal.

Not only was Maurice Murphy playing, but apparently Derek Watkins was leading the offstage group! Maurice's solos were indescribable, and Mahler's invitation to conductors to reorchestrate if they found a way to improve the work's impact was accepted - I've never heard anyone else end the work with a high F (on Bb trumpet)!

Anyway, somewhere in the intervening years this tape went missing... and I was wondering whether anyone else happened to know if this exists anywhere (or indeed another LSO Mahler 8, though not the Gergiev CD please, which I find suffers from the acoustic in St. Paul's).

The YouTube channel LSO Live Recordings does an excellent job of sharing some remarkable performances, including a good Mahler 6 with Boulez and really good versions of Mahlers 1 & 4 with Abbado and 9 with Haitink... but no 8 yet.

I'd be grateful for any leads people might have.

Thanks,

Phil

[Amateur's Amateur]

Hi. IO'm sure you've already searched, but I did some searching and only came up with Colin Davis and the Bavarian RSO.

I googled, and checked amazon and ebay. Could find no trace of that combination.

did find a cassette though (!) of some Mahler/Davis/LSO but not #8.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mahler-Colin-Davis-London-Symphony-Orchestra-Cassette/383445050381?hash=item59471b240d:g:rqoAAOSwuhheXSiu

Perhaps you're misremembering the conductor? or maybe it was cassette-only and has not been released otherwise.

hope someone else can help.

C

[S Koons]

There's a 1966 Bernstein/LSO Mahler 8 on Sony. http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=2462.

For myself, I've always found the Mahler 8 hard to follow in recordings. I once heard it live with the San Francisco Symphony, and it was a completely different experience.

SK

[PhilS]

Thanks for your replies - in fact it was a cassette recorded from BBC Radio 3. I believe the performance was from April 1985, part of the LSO's Mahler, Vienna and the Twentieth Century series in the 1980s. Claudio Abbado was the principal conductor at the time, but he seems to have been reticent when it came to the 8th (it's noticeable that he never did it in Lucerne, even having done all the others. If I remember rightly it was planned, but the programme was changed at shortish notice).

I have come across the Bernstein - it's good, but I was hoping to hear Maurice's playing on this symphony again (who wouldn't?!). That would place any performance between 1977 and 2007, since those 30 years were when he played (officially) with the orchestra.

I agree that the eighth is a problematic work - too often it gets out of control due to the sheer size of the thing. It's all too easy for the trumpeters to overblow towards the end, too. A lot of Mahler fans like to say it's the least good of all of Mahler's symphonies, but I have a feeling it just needs a really good performance.

Anyway, thanks again for these first replies - it's a long shot, I know, but I'll stay hopeful!

[Amateur's Amateur]

Perhaps a knowledgable person with nothing better to do could give us all a list of Mahler/Bruckner etc recordings with Maurice playing.

[PhilS]

This has been done before to some degree, I think but...

Mahler 1: LSO/Abbado - LSO Live Recordings (YouTube channel)
Mahler 2: LSO/Kaplan (Conifer)
Mahler 3: LSO/Tilson Thomas (Maurice Murphy on flugel and perhaps trumpet at the end - can anyone confirm/refute?) (Sony)
Mahler 4: LSO/Abbado - LSO Live Recordings (YouTube channel)
(There's a recording with Wyn Morris that I've not heard...)
Mahler 5: LSO/DePriest (Naxos)
Mahler 6: LSO/Jansons (LSO Live)
Mahler 7: LSO/Tilson Thomas (Sony)
Mahler 8: sigh... if only... (see above!)
Mahler 9: likewise...
Das Lied von der Erde: LSO/Davis - perhaps... I'll go and listen to it!

I don't know of any Bruckner recordings on which Maurice Murphy played, but there must be some on YouTube.

As for Strauss, there are some recordings with Abbado (Don Juan etc) and De Burgos (Alpensinfonie) that are good. There are also some Stravinsky discs and a wonderful DVD of the Rite of Spring with Boulez conducting (the D trumpet part passage towards the end of Part One played on a Bb, no less!).

Star Wars I-VI aren't bad, either...

Anyone care to add to the list?

[Amateur's Amateur]

thanks so much for that!

add: Superman

C