Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2

 

Mahler Symphony No. 1 ("Titan") and Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection"). Paavo Järvi conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and the NDR Chor. Features Camilla Tilling (soprano) and Lilli Paasikivi (mezzo-soprano). Directed for TV by Michael Ciniselli. Released 2014, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D+ for Symphony No. 1 / F- for Symphony No. 2

Symphony No. 1 is a fine performance with good SQ and 1080-level PQ. But it has a rip roaring case of DVDitis with a fast clip pace, few large-scale shots, and way too many shots of solos or small groups of players alternating with a huge number of shots of the conductor. Following our usual guidelines for grading DVDitis-afflicted discs, we arrive at D+.

Now we know that Symphony No. 2 here was shot on SD cameras for DVDs and then uprezed for Blu-ray presentation. See our review of the full Mahler S1-10 box for details.

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