Mahler Symphony Nos.7 and 8 and the mandolin

[Eugene]

So, friends, which recordings do you like? In which is the mandolin both most evident and played well (it's easy to lose a mandolin in a gigantic Mahlerian orchestra)? Other thoughts on these works? Etc.?

[Louise NM]

Bernstein and Mahler go together like . . . gin and tonic? peanut butter and jelly? sturm und drang? Something like that.

In this video of Bernstein and Vienna, the camera goes to the mandolinist whenever he is playing, and it is audible under the oboe solo. I hope the mandolinist brought a book for the rest of that symphony. The violin parts are 40+ pages while the mandolin part is three, and much of it is rests and cues.

[Eugene]

Bernstein certainly carries some Mahler-aficionado street cred, perhaps especially with NY (and perhaps excepting when heading Berlin at the end of his career). Thanks. I'll review vid.

[mrmando]

Heh. Seems like I've done at least one Mahler gig with a microphone on the mandolin.

I did a Respighi Roman Festival gig a couple of years ago for which the conductor asked me to use a pickup and an amp. That was pretty cool.

[Eugene]

I played Roman Festivals without amp just over a year ago. I was surprised to discover that I was very clearly audible from the way-back seats (my wife recorded literally seconds of the performance with her phone just so I could hear from something like her perspective).

[Eugene]

Anybody else, anybody with favorite commercially available releases of these works?