Mahler, Gustav/Debussy, Claude: Dimitri Mitropoulos conducts… (ICA Classics Audio CD 2-disc set)

Kolner Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester
Dmitri Mitropoulos, conductor

Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896–1960), a most distinguished Mahlerian, was one of the great conductors of his generation, the music director of the New York Philharmonic and a frequent guest conductor of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics as well as La Scala, Milan.

This Cologne performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 from 31 October 1960 is the only complete performance of the work conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos, the only other being his 1956 broadcast with the New York Philharmonic which is distorted by cuts and amendments.

It is the only officially released recording of Mitropoulos’s performance and together with Debussy’s La Mer, is sourced from WDR’s own master tapes.

The Cologne concert took place two days before Mitropoulos’s death in Milan on 2 November 1960. The set is completed by Mitropoulos’s outstanding interpretation of Debussy’s La Mer. A worthy document of a great condutor.