Mahler: Keeping Score [Blu-ray]

To a lot of us, it makes a big difference!
First, here's what you'll find in this set:

1. a full performance of Mahler's Symphony 1 by Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

2. a roughly two-hour program on the life and music of Gustav Mahler.

One disc is a full performance by MTT and the SFSO of Mahler's first symphony. Michael precedes it with a brief but helpful introduction that prepares the audience for the symphony. It's a good performance, with the first movement leading up to the "cuckoo theme" done much more softly than is common.

MTT obviously enjoys conducting Mahler's music, frequently looking like a child, delightfully surprised at each new phrase (even though he knows exactly what's coming!) We should all bring such a childlike delight to the magical music of Mahler.

The other disc:

How can the life of one of the world's greatest composers and conductors be told in about two hours? You're right--it isn't easy,...

Great story of Mahler's life and music
This double Blu-ray disc edition is a beautiful story of Mahler's life and music. It features many actual locations of his life from his hometown to his grave, both as seen today and in archival footage. In between, we have excerpts from his music expertly played by the SF Symphony and wonderfully explicated by Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas. Disc two is a playing of the First Symphony. Audio and video are both stunning. I had the same problem as the first reviewer when the disc froze up when playing it on an OPPO BDP-83 Blu-ray Disc Player with SACD, DVD-Audio, and VRS Technology, but it was resolved with a firmware upgrade from the Oppo website.

Brilliant
I frequently watch documentaries about music of all genres, and I can say that this is one of the best I have ever seen (and heard).

Michael Tilson Thomas has an obvious passion for Mahler's music, and his excitement is felt by the viewer, but what impressed me most was that even though you get the traditional chronological survey of Mahler's life and career, at appopriate times they juxtopose music from varoious periods to really give the "big picture" and show how everything is related. One great example was at the end of the program when they show how a theme from the beginning of Mahler's first song keeps returning, including at the end of the his final symphony. There is also a survey of the unique features of the scherzo movements iof many ot the symphonies, and these are shown in sequence. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, it is great to be shown all the unusual instruments that Mahler had used, including a demo of the hammer blows from the Sixth Symphony.

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