We all have our favorite Mahler 3, that monstrously sneaky masterpiece -- Opera Chic's used to be, by far, Glorious John Barbirolli's 1969 live recording with the Berliner (as a bonus, Testament adds to the 2-cd set a cute, if baffling, work by Barbirolli himself, an Elizabethan suite).
Then, last year, she fell madly in love with Bernard Haitink's recording with the CSO -- Milan's Corriere della Sera, in the rarest of rave reviews, called the recording, "unless something wondrous happens in the next three years, the best CD of the decade" -- and maybe, maybe, Haitink's is her new all-time favorite Mahler 3 (Sinopoli's analytical, cool as the proverbial cucumber, monstrously intelligent reading of the symphony, and Chailly burnished, gorgeous wonder are the other two OC fave recordings).
Tomorrow night, less than two weeks after tackling the Titan (not OC's favorite Mahler symphony, to say the least, so we stayed home, with all due respect to the two Gustavos) at la Scala, Gustavo Dudamel attacks the 90-minute-M3-monstah in Rome, with Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and Michelle de Young.