The winner for July is Osmo Vänskä’s BIS recording of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony. Great music if as poignant/harrowing as it is transcendental, this Minnesota performance has been haunting me since reviewing it – soaring, searing, emotionally deep and powerful, also remarkably rapt, sensitive and tender. Fab playing & sound.
A new Column category: Record of the Month.
Osmo has his critics for being too pernickety (the BBCSO fell out with him over his insistence on rehearsing the string sections separately!). I will definitely investigate his Mahler 10 in this best of all versions. I sometimes think the atmosphere and inspiration puts this symphony ahead of all the others. There is something transcendental about the music which I find very very moving, something absolutely genuine.