Mahler said that his sixth symphony expressed 'the cruelties I have suffered and the pains I've felt.' Few symphonies have captured emotions with such brutal perfection, nor been so prophetic. Mariss Jansons's performance... more »s of the symphony were truly revelatory events, greeted with unanimous critical and public acclaim. The recording is his first release on LSO Live.« less
Mahler said that his sixth symphony expressed 'the cruelties I have suffered and the pains I've felt.' Few symphonies have captured emotions with such brutal perfection, nor been so prophetic. Mariss Jansons's performances of the symphony were truly revelatory events, greeted with unanimous critical and public acclaim. The recording is his first release on LSO Live.
Martin Selbrede | The Woodlands, Texas | 10/27/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Having a handful of versions of each Mahler symphony, I wanted to acquire an additional modern recording of the 6th to expand my collection. Reviews of the Sanderling reading were uniformly great (excepting the few who complained that he conducted Mahler as if it were Shostakovich). I placed that order on Amazon -- and waited-- month after month -- and the delivery date kept getting pushed out farther. As a stopgap measure, I decided to try the Jansons version with the LSO (having been VERY impressed with his reading of Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances), and found this live recording to be an overwhelming experience in all particulars. I decisively cancelled the Sanderling order with a clear conscience. As a deeply powerful reading of Mahler's Sixth that traverses its entire arc of nuances, one can only say of this LSO Live release, "Game over, man!" FYI, there should be a "Woofer Advisory" sticker on the CD: the first hammerblow knocks your teeth out."
A Must for all Mahlerians
C. A. Campos | Montclair, NJ United States | 11/08/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"A rendering of "the only sixth" in the classical repertoire worth more than five stars. Wao, I am speechless, what a feeling of vastness, infinitude; I am finally beginning to get it. A "bravo" and another for Jansons, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite conductors, alongside Klemperer and Celibidache."
Jansons seems to have a special empathy for this work.
Peter Heddon | 12/29/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I should declare my knowledge of Mahler 6 recordings:Vaclav Neumann (excellent)and George Szell(dry and cursory)
i'm very happy with this latest addition to my collection:Jansons has a keen ear for detail but this never impedes the momentum,or a sense of the bigger picture.As for lightweight....i don't hear it myself....but Kubelik was always accused of the same thing,and look how his marvellous,glowing cycle has stood the test of time.The LSO may not be as colourful in timbre as Kubelik's Bavarian RSO but they appear to be at full tilt on this very special occasion."
Jansons is perplexing in the Mahler Sixth
Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 08/10/2006
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Mariss Jansons must be the only conductor to have recorded the Mahler Sixth live not once but twice. Besides this LSO Live reading there's a new SACD performance with Jansons' current orchestra, the Concertgebouw. Since it's British, this CD got a good review in the Gramophone, but in actuality it's a very odd, even perplexing performance. Why Jansons views Mahler's "Tragic" symphony as a lightweight affair is beyond me. Textures are glib and glossy throughout. The Scherzo sounds perky and clipped. The moving Andante, which is basically foolproof, glides by inconsequentially. The LSO seems lackluster as well, which isn't surprising--they aren't asked to stretch at all.
If this profound music means so little to Janosons, why does he keep recording it? The two outer movements, which are the heart and viscera of the Sixth, find him willing to dig in a little more, but the opening march in the finale feels completely limp--maybe Jansons is trying to correct Bernstein's excessive passion (as he sees it). In all, if you happen to want a breezy Mahler Sixth, this CD is as close as you'll ever get, I imagine.
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Taking fate head-on
Pater Ecstaticus | Norway | 10/09/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"We here have a classical and straightforward and somewhat 'light' (as opposed to 'heavy-handed') and 'fresh' account of this maybe greatest of Mahler's symphonies. The soundpicture is nicely direct without being too much in your face or constricting. All in all a success, when we consider the not so flattering acoustics of this recording venue. The technicians must surely have taken this into account here, when the result is so naturally beautiful-sounding.
However classical or 'light' his approach might be, Mariss Jansons - who now blesses us with his presence as chief conductor of the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest - from the start just takes us by the throat and drags us through this world at an almost unrelenting pace, which makes the inevitability of fate which looms larger than life over the whole symphony seem all the more immediate. There is for me here a constant uneasy feeling (which I believe is just what Mahler would want me to feel) of a constant pressing on towards the end, not wanting to delay but take fate head-on, as it were. Although there are more expanded views of this symphony, this recording is very rewarding on all fronts. Bravo to all involved. We now cannot but eagerly await Mariss Jansons' Mahler 6 with the Concertgebouworkest."