Mahler Symphonies 1-2 and 4-9 Box Set. All of Mahler’s symphonies (except No. 3) performed at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig by the Gewandhausorchester conducted by Riccardo Chailly. Grade for the box: D.
The musical performances of these symphonies are excellent as is the sound. If the price drops enough, this becomes competitive with CD boxes of these symphonies. Then the video aspects of the box would become irrelevant—just play the discs in pure audio mode.
But if you are interested in good video of classical music, all the titles in this box comprise a colossal disaster and utter waste of the human spirit.
Why such a harsh opinion? Well, to start, the box is missing Symphony No. 3. We did extensive reviews of 6 of the titles in this box. Two titles got a C+, and the rest graded lower. We found evidence of DVDitis in every title we reviewed. Check out our 6 reviews (with screenshots and demonstrations of DVDitis) and you can decide if there is a special reason why you would spend time on these crippled video files.
We forgive Paul Smaczny for all his sins. He probably made DVD-style recordings of all this just to pay the bills. This is all history. To date, no one has even begun the task of making high-quality Blu-ray recordings (by one or several orchestras) of all the Mahler symphonies. If enough consumers are ready now to buy HD recordings of symphonies, the opportunity is wide open for someone to produce the recordings we want. And Smaczny/Accentus would be in an especially good geographical location to try to tackle this.
Our suggestion: wait for the industry to start making good videos of symphonic music. In the meantime, we have lots of wonderful recitals, chamber music, operas, and ballets to enjoy (including many such titles from Accentus).
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