There is a bottomless pit of boxsets devoted to a single conductor, and rightly so. It's a shame that there aren't more that focus on orchestras. On iTunes I could only find this set and a couple of similar sets for the Berlin Philharmonic (broken into different time periods). Admittedly, those are the first two you'd expect to be given the box set treatment. I'm sure there are others -- I've seen Israel Philharmonic sets in brick and mortar stores -- but there should be more.
The Vienna box presents a brief survey of a composers work, usually featuring multiple conductors. It makes perfect sense to feature the VPO like this, since they are the rare orchestra that has eschewed having permanent principal conductors throughout most of their long history. In other words, they're used to having their signature sound molded by a sequence of guest conductors. Although the first, larger volume seemed to attract more attention when it was released, the second volume is much more my style, based around Romantic and early 20th century composers.
I received a crash course in Bruckner from this box, which was actually a big selling point for me. Bruckner essentially wrote the same symphony nine times, with progressively longer run times, while rarely straying from strictly imposed forms for each movement. That's a criticism for some, but an ethos for Bruckner superfans. Abbado's Bruckner 1 is taut and energetic. His Bruckner 4 is strong too, but Bruckner 5 felt too safe, too benign. von Karajan takes over for the 7th and 8th, two oft-cited reference recordings. The 8th, which was one of his final concerts, is simply spectacular. Giulini's Bruckner 9 is certainly passable, but failed to bring out anything truly inspiring from the piece.
von Karajan conducts Tchaikovsky's 4th, 5th, and 6th, which are all wonderful but special mention must go to the devastatingly powerful 6th.
Next comes Dvorak. I was unfamiliar with Myung-Whun Chung, but he did fantastic work on Dvorak's 6th and 7th symphonies. Both are punchy, exciting, and strike the perfect emotional tone of the work. Lorin Maazel's 8th and 9th were big disappointments though, particularly the 9th, which was simply dull and underplayed throughout. The dynamics were simply absent, the entire piece felt devoid of feeling and inspiration.
I had read reviews about this recording of Mahler 2 by Abbado, which universally criticized it as dull and slow-moving. Those reviews were completely correct. The first movement comes off well, but the rest plods along. All the tension in the music evaporates during each quiet part in the finale, and the final minutes were horribly recorded and overcompressed. Bernstein's Mahler 5 is deserving of its reputation as one of the finest ever recordings of that symphony. My favourite thing on this box set might be Pierre Boulez's simply breathtaking Mahler 6. The whole symphony is great, but the finale in particular is seat-of-your-pants excitement and suspense. Just the perfect combination of orchestra and a conductor with the right temperment for the source material. Bernstein's live Mahler 8 is certainly fun, with the conductor audibly banging on the podium and barely keeping the tiger under control. Abbado's Mahler 9 is a mixed bag. The opening movement gets the emphasis wrong for my tastes. The chaotic parts should be the interludes that interrupt the blissfully quieter portions, but Abbado does the opposite. However, the third movement is scorching, and the final Adagio is suitably devastating without a doubt.
Bernstein's four Sibelius symphonies are far from his best work with that composer. All were recorded in Bernstein's 80's slow tempo period. These tempos almost completely kill the 1st and 5th symphonies, both are exciting in parts but the longer running lengths simply drained my patience while listening to them. That approach is much more successful on the short, single movement 7th symphony. I have a soft spot for this Sibelius 2 recording, which I first discovered via videos on Youtube. It's also far too slow, and drags significantly for the first two movements but the melodramatic tempos are exploited to their fullest on the powerful two final movements.
Bernstein closes out the box conducting Shostakovich's 6th and 9th, which are passable but nothing special.
All in all, what's to complain about? Each recording was previously released, so many VPO fans will have heard the best stuff already. But for someone looking to grow their collection, you get 24 discs worth of music (more if you buy the full symphony edition set) including a few all time great recordings, and generally notable work from beginning to end.
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