Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maurice Abravanel
Silverline Classics 284128-2 (recorded May/June 1974 for Vanguard Everyman; this DVD-Audio/CD issued 2003)
(24 bit/ 96 kHz flac - 2 channel - and scans)
Recording venue: Mormon Tabanacle, Salt Lake City
Recording engineer: David Baker; Producer: Seymour Solomon
Recent interest on MIMIC in the series of Mahler Symphonies recorded by Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony for Vanguard in the 1960s and 1970s, prompted me to look out a couple of later issues that I have with curious double-sided discs. The first six symphonies were issued in this form but I have never seen Symphonies 7, 8 and 9.
In the case of the Mahler Symphony No.6, there is one disc with one side being the standard red-book CD (16 bit/44.1kHz) and the other side being a DVD-Audio containing a 6-channel 24 bit/96kHz version and a 2-channel 24 bit/96kHz stereo version. Here is the 24 bit/96kHz stereo version, converted from the native AOB file format to FLAC using Foobar2000 with the DVD-Audio plug-in.
This series of recordings were generally characterised as being by a less than top-level orchestra playing at the very best of their abilities under a sympathetic Mahler conductor. I find his lyrical approach rather lightweight for such a heavy symphony as the sixth but it's still superior to many later recordings and the recording quality itself is often very good although I find this one a bit thin. The sound for Symphony No.2 (which I will post next week) seems much more dynamic and full.