Gustav Mahler: Symphonie Nr.4 (200g / 33rpm) LP

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Lisa Della Casa, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner
Label: Acoustic Sounds, 1958

The second series of RCA Living stereo new editions by Analogue Productions with 25 remastered classics will delight your ear and amaze you with their clarity as well as their warm and full sound. Just like our first highly acclaimed LSC series, we've fixed defects from previous editions - from mastering to LP pressing to Stoughton Printing's glossy heavy sleeves with hand-applied sheets (recognisable by the typical folding) that are a faithful duplicate of the original artwork, "Living Stereo" logo, "Shaded Dog" label included! Mastered by Ryan K. Smith of Sterling Sound from the original 2-track master tapes with 33 1 / 3rpm, galvanized and pressed by Quality Record Pressings - one of the best vinyl LP manufacturers - no other edition can match these 200g records. Mahler's Fourth and "Das Lied von der Erde" were Reiner's only Mahler recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and both recall his orchestral magic and skills as a proven expert on Mahler. The tempos are more on the faster side for a piece during which many conductors like to linger, but the forward flow does not obscure the view of detail. Reiner gives the slow movement a chaste solemnity, and the last heavenly vision is beautifully sung by Lisa Della Casa with her silky voice. This Mahler's Fourth is closer to Boulez's objectivity than to Bernstein's emotionality and remains to this day what it was when it was recorded - one of the best interpretations of this work in the catalogue. It is also one of the most sonorous, as RCA's Living Stereo Engineering still holds its own after decades.