Here is another recording that will mean more to attendees of the associated live event than those seeking a general recommendation. The enthusiasm is not in doubt, the reading itself crisply focused, yet on one level the music-making can only be reckoned uncompetitive. The Park Avenue Chamber Symphony is a community orchestra partly comprising players who do other things for a living and Mahler demands a level of expertise, or more precisely perhaps a subtlety of response, that proves a step too far. No doubt the hyper-vivid recorded sound sits well with the immersive strategy of the band’s ‘InsideOut’ productions in which concert-goers are seated among the players.

There’s little to object to interpretatively speaking – David Bernard’s Adagietto is neither as slow as Claudio Abbado’s in Chicago (DG, 10/81) nor as free-flowing as his later remakes – but punters must be prepared to forgo the elegant sophistication of that great Mahlerian. Bernard’s less than unanimous strings seldom muster much intensity of tone and their struggles undermine the bouncy optimism and coherence for which he strives in the finale. Section leaders moonlighting from the city’s more august musical institutions add class and (part-timers or not) the brass can muster considerable heft.

There are extensive notes from the scholar Vera Micznik and the conductor himself. These seem to be studio sessions from Manhattan’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music rather than an edited version of an actual concert.