Credits:

Bernard Haitink , Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Description:

Haitink & the BPO's spectacular Mahler performances, a collection of unfinished projects on the PHILIPS label.

Haitink and his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra completed the complete Mahler symphonies between 1962 and 1971. Although many other recordings of Mahler symphonies by Haitink have been released, the new series of recordings that began in 1987 initially attracted worldwide attention as the first "complete Mahler symphonies" by the Berlin Philharmonic. At that time, Mahler was in the midst of a Mahler boom. There were several "Mahler Symphony Collection" recording projects going on at the same time, but the fact that Mahler was being performed by a world-renowned virtuoso orchestra drew particular attention. Haitink also recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which was completed just prior to this project, to extremely high acclaim. In 1988, he recorded a session recording of Wagner's opera "The Ring of the Nibelung," which was also highly acclaimed, and he was truly a conductor on the rise. In addition, the Berlin Philharmonic's first recording of Symphony No. 1 "Titan," the first in the series, was released in the subscription concert immediately prior to the recording, and the performance of the piece at the same concert was highly acclaimed in the reviews there.
When the recording was actually released, the performance exceeded expectations and was lavishly praised. This reputation remained unchanged from the first recording, "Titan," to the seventh recording in 1992, Symphony No. 7, "Night Song" (coupled with the Adagio from Symphony No. 10), but unfortunately the project came to an end with this seventh recording.
This set is a collection of all the session recordings of Mahler's works that Haitink made with the Berlin Philharmonic between 1987 and 1992 and sold in installments. This is the first set to be sold more than 20 years after the project was completed. Starting from the period of Karajan's reign, these recordings are from an interesting period in terms of the orchestra's timbre. The gorgeous sound of the principal members still playing is lost forever, but this performance documents its glory. In that sense, the Berliner Philharmoniker's finest period is recorded here (Gielen's 7th, released last year on Testament, is a good example). Please enjoy this collection of the best Mahler recordings by Haitink & the BPO all at once.
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