This first authorized release of Dimitri Mitropoulos’ 1960 Salzburg Mahler Eighth (a work the conductor did not record commercially) is refurbished from the original Austrian Radio tape. Previous CD incarnations are pitched a shade sharp, which enables the performance to fit on a single disc. By contrast, Orfeo’s proper pitching and extra applause requires a second disc, but at no extra charge. All the same, it’s a qualified bargain. Part One proceeds with caution, while the strident, hollow sonics give a skewed impression of Mahler’s subtle orchestral deployment. Things markedly improve in Part Two. The annotations quote a reviewer who attended the actual performance, praising the orchestra, while finding fault with the singing. I hear the opposite. Giuseppe Zampieri’s tenor voice resonates with ardent lyricism, and the women are all first-rate. One cannot deny the Vienna Philharmonic’s distinct timbral qualities, yet the rough-hewn playing suggests that this score was new to them. Among live archival Mahler Eighths, Mitropoulos doesn’t marshal his formidable forces with Horenstein’s ebb and flow, or Stokowski’s sweeping momentum. Admirers of Mitropoulos will be glad to know of this release, but it falls short of the conductor’s incandescent New York Philharmonic broadcasts of the Fifth and Sixth symphonies.
