Mahler: Symphony No. 9

Jascha Horenstein's live stereo Mahler 9th has not been previously available, though another live 1966 performance with the LSO, in mono, has circulated on the Music & Arts label, as has his 1953 studio recording for Vox. That may be all fans of Horenstein's Mahler will need to know. Others should hear his grim, if sometimes understated, view of the composer's last completed symphony. The long first and last movements of the work, each nearly a half-hour long, are especially devastating in their bleakness, though the final moments achieve a hard-won tranquility. The main weakness, hardly fatal but regrettable even in a concert performance, is the ragged orchestral work in the Rondo-Burlesque. The Kindertotenlieder features the wonderful Janet Baker, whose passionate version recorded for EMI with Sir John Barbirolli a few months after this mono 1967 concert is unbeatable. Here, balanced far forward of the orchestra and partnered with a more objective conductor, she's inhibited interpretively, though still radiant vocally. --Dan Davis