Latest to join the nostalgic-presentation bandwagon, Sony has chosen a worthy occasion in recording history to showcase in style. Mitropoulos’s pioneering 1940 Mahler One begins unpromisingly with screechy violin harmonics and monster winds, but settles to an acceptable-sounding presentation of a live-wire event (no repeats, but who’s complaining?). Each movement encompasses so many clear-etched moods and tempi that the final impression of dramatic unity can only amaze. The same goes for the Rachmaninov, where the grim ferry-boat turns into a locomotive and a luxury liner in turn without the slightest implausibility.
