Mahler Symphony No. 7 and Symphony No. 8. Paavo Järvi conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Limburger Domsingknaben, the Europachorakademie, and the Czech Philharmanic Choir Brno. Features sopranos Erin Wall, Ailish Tynan, and Anna Lucia Richter; mezzo-sopranos Alice Coote and Charlotte Hellekant, tenor Nikolai Schukoff; baritone Michail Nagy, and bass Ain Anger. Directed for TV by Michael Ciniselli. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: F
Peter Quantrill, writing for Gramophone in the July 2015 issue at page 36, condemns Paavo Järvi here for "traffic-cop" conducting. Quantrill is also irritated by the filming! He complains that "the cameras offer either close-up or side-on views of the soloists." No kidding! Instead of focusing on the "intelligent" placement of the two choirs in the venue, "close attention is paid to a particular blond soprano in the front row." Wow. This is an strikingly good description of DVDitis, but Quantill just doesn't know the name of the disease. If a printed magazine critic is bothered by weak video content, it must really be bad!
And now we have learned that both of these recordings were done on SD cameras for DVDs and then uprezed for Blu-ray presentation. See our review of the full Mahler S1-10 box for details.
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