A Concert for New York - In Remembrance and Renewal - The Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 [Blu-ray]

a true event
Right off the bat, let me say that this is a recording of an event, rather than an eventful recording. I must say that the Mahler 2 is an inspired choice for this occasion,marking as it does the tenth anniversary of that awful day in 2001.

The main thought that I was left with was how affected I was with the reaction to this wonderful music by the outside audience.Talk about rapt attention. These people were transfixed, and frequently with tears rolling down their cheeks during the most moving moments. Initially I was bothered by the low-level "street noise" I could discern during the outside shots, but this soon melted away with the emotion of it all. Just think how many of the outside (and inside) audience members heard this life-changing music for the first time that night! How many will become new Mahler devotees? I remember when I first heard Mahler's music and it changed my life forever - and that was nearly 50 years ago.

Now to the performance, which was...

Yes, This Is Mahler's Second Symphony
All of a sudden, in this centennial year of the death of Mahler, there are now four Mahler Seconds on Blu-Ray.
ABBADO's Lucerne performance of 19/20 August 2003 was the first to appear on Blu-Ray. There was a sound problem with the initial release, but it has been fixed. My copy forms part of the boxed set of the first seven symphonies, where the First and the Second are combined onto one disc, the Third and Fourth on another, the Fifth and Sixth on another, while the Seventh is sole occupant of another disc. It is wonderful to have all the Mahler symphonies out on Blu-ray already so early in the life of the format, and the bulk of them presented by Abbado's handpicked Lucerne players. The contributions of Berlin veterans like clarinettist Sabine Meyer and flautist Emmanuel Pahud are highlighted in the Second, and their presence is missed in the First, which was recorded later. The blu-ray sound of the Second is astonishingly better than on the prior DVD release, and reveals...

Good, but not great
"In Remembrance and Renewal" of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 the New York Philharmonic under Alan Gilbert and with soloists Dorothea Röschmann and Michelle DeYoung as well as the New York Choral Artists fittingly performed Mahler's "Resurrection Symphony", recorded live in Avery Fisher Hall in brilliant audio and video (bravo Accentus!). I am not altogether happy with the filming: the camera takes us outside at times, to the listeners on the plaza at Lincoln Center, annoyingly to the large TV projection screen on which the concert is shown, and there are both panorama and street shots (the latter once even in rapid motion!), but these distractions from the musical event apparently are meant to convey a "village" atmosphere for this "Concert for New York". Now to the performance. Alan Gilbert has a firm grasp on the score's many emotional layers ranging from initial severe grandeur through the second movement's dance-like charm, the scherzo's whimsical playfulness, the...

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