Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" DG Original Source 2 Vinyl/Claudio Abbado—Chicago Symphony Orchestra [2025]

A symphony I thought I’d never see remastered on vinyl (because it was almost perfect the first time it was recorded in 1977) was just released (June 2025): Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" with Claudio Abbado and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with only 3700 copies in a limited edition. This is a review of the newly remastered two-disc vinyl (€69,99).

Mahler Resurrection: important recordings 

The Second Symphony is a tour de force, and it’s one of the Austrian composer’s most recorded compositions. It is loved for its stunning intensity, complexity, and vocal beauty. A long symphonic masterpiece that engages you in a way that only a Mahler composition can. And when paired with the right conductor and orchestra, expect the unexpected. This was my experience with the 1977 vinyl recording of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Claudio Abbado.

The first recording of the Second Symphony is with the Berlin State Opera and Oscar Fried, from 1924 (the offstage musicians were conducted by none other than Otto Klemperer). I own both the 78 rpm shellacs and the LP transfer by Pearl Opal (1980) of this historic recording. However, it sounds abysmal in many ways. It was re-scored (including a bass tuba to fill out the basses). The recording horn failed this daunting symphony; it was insufficient to say the least, but at that time, it was what engineers had at their disposal. Recorded before electrical recording became the norm, musicians and singers were cramped into a small place to be recorded by a horn and stylus that would take in any sound and “mark it” on the wax disc, add to this the changing of the turntable discs every four minutes, it was just too much of a task for this symphony.

There are other classics: From 1976, Kubelik with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (also from Deutsche Grammophon) and Bernstein’s 1963 wonderful recording with the New York Philharmonic. Other fan favourites like Bruno Walter’s 1958 Sony recording with the same orchestra. Klemperer in 1962 came out with a marvellous recording for EMI, and Scherchen with the Vienna State Opera Orchestra in 1959 for Millennium Classics. And from the Decca label, two bangers, Zubin Mehta with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1975 and Georg Solti’s 1964 with the London Symphony Orchestra's explosive rendition. All of these recordings deserve your attention. 

A little history of Mahler’s Masterpiece 

“My first two symphonies contain the inner aspect of my whole life; I have written into them in my blood, everything that I have experienced and endured” (Recollections of Gustav Mahler, Natalie Bauer-Lechner). 

Mahler began by writing a one-movement composition that would later become the entire Symphony No. 2; he called it “Todtenfeier” (this was in 1888, just a few months after completing his Symphony No. 1). It is believed that the source for naming the first movement, Todtenfeier, was Mahler’s best friend from the Vienna Conservatory, Siegfried Lipiner, a translator of German Romanticism. Lipiner published a book in 1887 of the works of the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz. In this four-volume epic poem called Dziady, Lipiner used the German title “Todtenfeier” (mourning/funeral rite) for the translation of Dziady.

After finishing this first movement, which took him about six months, Mahler completely stopped working on the symphony. It took him five more years to start again, and several events during this period were salient in his hiatus. 

Some believe Mahler was heartbroken and depressed, as his love affair with Marion von Weber (who was married to the grandson of Carl Maria von Weber) ended in rejection in 1888. Mahler’s parents both died within months of each other in 1889. His time as the Leipzig Opera Director was a heavy load as well (during his first two years, 1886-1888, Mahler conducted 219 performances of forty-eight different operas). 

Others have commented on the exchange between Mahler and a Director he greatly admired, having said not very nice things about Todtenfeier when Gustav played the first bars on the piano. Hans von Bülow (1830-1894), conductor of the Philharmonic Concerts in Hamburg, said of Mahler’s new composition: “If what I heard is music, then I no longer understand anything about music” (La Grange, Mahler: The Arduous Road to Vienna). 

Mahler later recollected to his friend Fritz Löhr, “When I played my Todtenfeier to him, he became quite hysterical with horror, declaring that compared with my piece, Tristan was a Haydn symphony” (K. Martner ed., The Collected Letters of Gustav Mahler).

Mahler completed his Symphony No. 2 in 1894, having its premiere in 1895 with him at the podium with the Berlin Philharmonic with soloists Josephine von Artner and Hedy Feldenova. Hermann Behn, pianist and Mahler financier, arranged a two-hand piano arrangement and paid for its publication in 1896 as well. It was a nice full-circle moment for Mahler since the reception of his Symphony No. 1 did not go well.

Sound

But let's get back to Abbado and the Chicago SO. Deutsche Grammophon comments about this remastered recording:

The audiophile vinyl series The Original Source presents outstanding recordings from the 1970s in a whole new sound quality. For this, the renowned Emil Berliner Studios have remastered and edited the original four-and eight-track tapes in 100% analog quality (AAA) using technologies developed specifically to produce the series. The sonic differences to the original releases are considerable: greater clarity, more subtleties and improvements in frequency response, while at the same time less background noise, distortion, and compression allow for an audiophile listening experience like never before.

I compared both recordings and I tend to agree. I listened to the first recording, and as always, it amazes me the way Abbado controlled the pace in the first movement. An Abbado that imagined an intense and earth-shaking Resurrection with the Chicago SO (1977), changed his tone in the following decades with his Vienna Philharmonic (1994) and Lucerne Festival Orchestra (2003) Mahler Second recordings. His first recording is leagues better than his later ones. Don’t get me wrong, you will enjoy them, but it’s a different Abbado, different orchestras, and a gaze that, in my view, sets on pondering death more than experiencing life.

In this newly remastered vinyl from Deutsche Grammophon, I found the brass and some wind instruments more present and with slightly better clarity and a little sparkle in the strings in the first movement that I could not pick up in the original recording. There are moments in the original recording that the percussion section slightly muffled the orchestra, and it seems that in this newly remastered recording, they were attentive to other parts of the orchestra as well and let them “sing” a little more. 

And speaking of singing, my goodness, Marilyn Horne is magnificent. I find her singing here even better than in her “Urlicht” movement with the Boston Symphony with Ozawa ten years later. Carol Neblett complements Horne and Chorus, offstage horns and trumpets are there as well for the climax to end this remarkable sounding Resurrection symphony. 

Conclusion

Highly recommended. It’s affordable (it won’t be in the following years) and a historic recording of one of the best Mahler interpreters of our time at his peak, an orchestra that complements Mahler’s pace, and singers that focus on the transcendent; they will take you where you need to be. A masterpiece all around.

[The author purchased a copy of the LPs for this review—Ed]