Mahler Symphonies Nos 7 8

Leonard Bernstein made these recordings during his wonderfully productive collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker in the mid1970s when he was at the peak of his career Humphrey Burtons direction is as always very fine giving the viewerlistener both the larger picture and highlighting individual soloists players or groups of musicians and of course the maestro The video and audio tracks show their age but are quite acceptable even for todays standards Bernsteins Seventh is everything one could desire dark and spooky highly sensual but also structurally strong and assertive where needed Bernsteins reading does not gloss over breakdowns in tonality and the foreshadowing of later musical developments