Customer Reviews

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

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Thomas Sanderling, son of the great Kurt Sanderling, shows signs of being every bit the Mahlerian his father is. (The elder Sanderling earlier recorded a legendary performance of the Mahler 10th Symphony which now appears to be reissued imminently, an occasion of true note.)

Despite the orchestral setting, Sanderling (and his father) are German, not Russian, having ended up on the eastern side of the Cold War Divide after WWII. The great Central European tradition so helpful for being a good Mahlerian is part of their shared musical heritage despite the fact that the son spent a far larger fraction of his life in the Soviet Union than did the father.

There are a few tough benchmarks out there for any new performance of the Mahler 6th to meet or beat if it is to catch my attention. And, for each of these few exemplary recordings by my measurements, there are probably two to three times as many that I find myself not able to listen to at all. Somewhere between these two extremes is a large number of Mahler 6ths that may please others more than they please me, and so that is "what makes the world go round."

The two Mahler 6th performances against which I inevitably compare others are the second Bernstein recording, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, on DG ("Bernstein II," to distinguish it from his earlier Columbia Masterworks [now Sony] recording with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra), and one by Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic, on Carlton Classics. (Both of these are available elsewhere at Amazon.com The Zander sometimes has "availability" problems, but it is well worth the wait.)

What distinguishes the Bernstein II and Zander performances in my mind are several factors: The overall sense of the architecture of the piece as realized in the performance; the ability of each of these two conductors to treat his orchestra as one "of soloists," as Mahler intended; the virtuosic performances of these musicians (in Zander's case, a group of "semi-pro" musicians, remarkably); the correct sense of the beauty underlying the themes of the third-movement Andante moderato, with its constantly-shifting major-minor tonalities that suggest emotional ambiguity as little other music can; and, finally, the sense of absolute, crushing tragedy in the closing bars of the final movement. When performances are this fine, it matters little - if at all - whether the final movement has two or three hammer blows, or whether the Andante moderato movement is placed second or third in the order of movements. (Mahler had second and third thoughts on its placement, which is third in these two recordings and in the Sanderling recording under review. But, with easily-programmable CD players, the listener can readily have his choice in the matter.)

With all of that as "groundwork," let me simply state that this Sanderling performance is fully the equal of the Bernstein II and the Zander on all levels. Sanderling has a sense of the work that is quite in line with those of the other two conductors, his St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra provides wonderful playing of a warm resonance not often heard in Western orchestras, and the engineers provide a soundscape that is far better than those provided by Russian (and Soviet) engineering teams in the past. The high points - as in the Bernstein and Zander performances - are in the last two movements. The Finale in particular has that shattering intensity and sense of crushing finality in the closing measures that will leave you limp. (As a side note, the hammer blows - always a subject of controversy because there are either "one too many" or "one too few" and because they are either "inaudible" or "too instrusive" [a charge leveled against the Zander performance, but one with which I can easily live] are "just right" in this shattering performance.)

As if all that weren't enough, this 2-CD recording, complete with a nicely-annotated booklet, is priced at a level that is simply irresistable. It should be in every Mahlerite's collection.

Bob Zeidler

This vigorous, energetic performance is, without doubt, one of the best available of Mahler's anguished Symphony No. 6--it can stand comparison with acclaimed accounts by Bernstein, Boulez, Abbado, Barbirolli, or anyone else. The playing of the St. Petersburg PO is a paragon of conviction, and Sanderling proves to be an able guide through the turbulent waters. And look at the price--an amazing value!

In a couple of key aspects, this recording shouldn't be the stunning success that it turns out to be. The St. Petersburg Philharmonic shows off the sheer lung power that only the truly great ochestras command, but the body of tone they produce is more suited to a mid-to-late 20th Century composer such as Shostakovich, who of course counted Mahler among his chief influences. There's not that mixture of burnished and blunt that is a hallmark of the "Mahler sound," and which great Mahlerians such as Horenstein and Bernstein brought out regardless of the particular orchestra they were conducting. Here, everything is slightly harsh and astringent, even massed strings. And there's the CD layout: Aside from the fact that a two-CD set playing for only 81 minutes is stingy in these days of 81-minute single CDs, the option of programming the Andante to play before the Scherzo (which some Mahlerites prefer, and which may have been the order Mahler really intended--although we'll probably never know for certain) is not available here, since the Scherzo and Andante are on separate discs. (In all fairness, the same complaint may be raised about a few other sets of this symphony.)

Despite these criticisms, I'd choose this recording of the Mahler Sixth over any other that I know of. Why? Because although he's clearly looking at Mahler as a precursor to Shostakovich, Thomas Sanderling gives us the clearest rendering on record of this complex and lacerating score. In doing so, he nimbly avoids the traps which snare other conductors to a greater or lesser extent. Unlike Bernstein or Tennstedt, he avoids exaggerating a symphony that is already composed in italics with underlines and exclamation points (although it must be said that in context, the exaggerations can make quite an impact). Unlike Boulez, Karajan or Dohnanyi, he avoids refining something essential out of the music. Unlike Horenstein or Zander (in his Boston Philharmonic recording now superceded by a remake on Telarc), he is not stymied by a lack of virtuosity on the orchestra's part. The outcome is that the "hero's" final defeat is all the more moving and sobering for being arrived at with a lack of sentimentality and horror-movie melodrama.

I think that the Thomas Sanderling/St. Petersburg is the best version of Mahler's 6th that uses conventional tempi. It has almost all of the beauty and passion of the Barbirolli recording, without the idiosyncratic slow timings that annoy some listeners (not this one). Unfortunately the Sanderling now seems to be out of print. Bring it back! In the meanwhile, get the Barbirolli.

With a work as recorded as this, you can do far better than this recording. There are no real insights here, the playing is curiously perfunctory and detached, and the orchestra is even sloppy in a few areas.

For sheer knock-me-over impact, it's hard to beat Karajan, especially in the finale, where he steamrollers you. (That last forte chord always makes me jump, and I *know* it's coming.) Barbirolli is more interesting for his concept of grim-grim-grim unrelenting marching. Boulez abstracts the work more, making it sound not like Shostakovich, as Sanderling does, but *post* Shostakovich. And Lenny just gives you more sheer heart on the sleeve, especially with the "Alma" theme. Then there's the fiery Mitropoulos and the structural-minded Haitink (in a live performance) and the fleet, cool Szell. (Haven't heard MTT's performance in its entirety yet.) What they all have in common is the ability to whip the orchestra into a frenzy with their personal vision of the work. *That's* what I don't get here. I get 100 musicians playing the right notes (more or less--there are a few slips) but that's all. The first movement doesn't have that relentless drive, except in a sheer mechanical sense, though there are admittedly some sweet moments of repose near the end, some of the most successful moments on the disc. But the coda is slow and underpowered, with thin-sounding trumpets. (The close-miking doesn't help things.) The second movement is fine, and the Andante is probably the best movement overall, but I'm still not swept away by Mahler's bucolic remembrances, by that whistfulness that's in so much of Mahler's slow music, and there's some lackluster violin work at 5:38 (repeated at 5:43) into the movement, especially the first. More crucially, the shifting of moods as we alternate from major to minor just isn't there; I don't get a connection between the various musical episodes in this shifing movement. At 6:33 in the same movement, for example, there's a shining example of repose, for only one bar (but you have to be quick with Mahler); great interpretors make a moment of this, but here it's just played over on the way to the next phrase. And starting at 7:05, another tremendous moment in the descending violins is just neglected. The finale is loud, with lots of banging, but that's mostly it. There isn't the inevitable suction into the maelstrom. A lot of it, now that I think about it, has to do with phrasing and ***weight***, or lack of it. There's *clarity,* as a lot of people have pointed out, but sometimes that works to a disadvantage. Karajan, Barbirolli, Bernstein and Mitropoulos were masters of thickening and thinning the orchestral sound (as was Furtwangler, but he did not record the Mahler 6th--pity) that could sometimes give the illusion of speeding up or slowing down when in fact the tempo hadn't changed. Here the big climaxes, the intervening lulls, are let down, and the performance just moves from section to section. More than any other composer, Mahler demands you understand where you are in the piece at all times and where the piece is going. I don't get that as much here as I'd like. I am admittedly being harsh, but that's only because we live in a world filled with terrific Mahler 6ths, so the competition is hyper-intense. I'd opt for any of the performances I named above over this one, and most are in very good sound too. Recommended only if you must have every recording of the 6th out there.

Many of the great Mahler conductors of the past have produced somewhat problematic interpretation of this work. Evidently it is hard to find the balance in one of Mahler's most demanding scores. By contrast, the Sanderling account sets a new standard on how to balance the extremes of the work without in any way diminishing its musical expressiveness. The interpretation is not so overtly personal and eccentric as Rattle's (EMI), not so rushed as Bernstein's (SONY) and Kubelik's (DG or Audite), it has no exposition cut in the first movement as in Szell's (SONY) and Barbirolli's (EMI), it is not so meticulously literally grasped as Zander's (Telarc) - too loud hammerblows there! - and not so hysterically over-dramatized as Karajan's (DG).

The interpretation is however following mainstream in placing the andante as the third movement. There are just the two hammerblows we know from Mahler's revised edition (compare with Rattle and Zander).

Though presenting the most familiar version, Sanderling's interpretation is a serious contender: we get a very clear and balanced view of the work, and the playing from St Petersburg is very good. In addition, the recorded sound gives a convincing natural stereo picture.

At midprice, thus, there is no reason to hesitate. This record should be in every Mahlerite collection. However, in my view, Sanderling's interpretation is not as compelling as Barbirolli's, Horenstein's (Unicorn-Kanchana), and Mitropolos' (EMI), which I regard as the three first choices.

The most immediately arresting quality of this recording lies in the impact and clarity that it presents the textures of this work, perticularly with regard to the brass and percussion (the strings actually sound somewhat recessed in places). In fact, I hear percussive details, such as the use of tam-tams, on this recording that I have not previously heard. This to me imparts a more modernistic quality to the work, as opposed to a more warm and blended late romantic type of sonority. These aspects of the sound seem to complement the rather hard edged nature of the interpretation itself, which, instead of the emotionalism of Bernstein or the beauty and refinement of Karajan, conveys instead a quality of starkness and astringency that makes this music sound more similar in character to later 20th century composers such as Hindemith or Shostakovich. Also, the orchestral playing is first rate, with none of the vibrato in the brass that Russian ensembles have been noted for.
At midprice (even though it is spread across two full CDs), I strongly recommend it to the serious Mahlerite.

A note to the potential customer: If you see a CD of this recording available, do not hesitate to buy it; this release is out of print and thus very hard to find. Alternatively, you can download it in compressed MP3 format on AmazonMP3 or in M4A format on iTunes. But if you want a lossless version or have a CD archive and see this recording available somewhere, grab it while you can.

When I saw the highly-acclaimed (and impossible to find) Thomas Sanderling/St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra recording of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 on iTunes in October 2009, I could not help purchasing it to give it a listen.
After I became somewhat familiar with Mahler's Sixth and listened to it a few times, it was With only a few recordings I listened to that I noticed new details in the score. This Sanderling Mahler 6 upholds that tradition nicely. The opening A's in the cellos and basses do not have the staccato crunch of Sir Georg Solti or Benjamin Zander in his Philharmonia recording; those opening notes are just a tad longer, and the acoustics of the hall just seem better. If asked to compare, I would say that Sanderling's opening of the first movement reminds me most of the recent David Zinman/Tonhalle Orchestra recording. And, indeed, the timings are within 20 seconds of each other: Zinman clocks in at a nice, moderate 23:50, and Sanderling comes in at 23:31.
The percussion in this recording is definitely noteworthy. The snare drum is very noticeable, something I consider essential in Mahler 6; the percussionists all do an excellent job, whether it be on drums or keyboard instruments. The "fate motif" on timpani is very strong, and it does not linger as some other interpretations do, such as Zander (with the Boston Philharmonic) and Zinman.
The "cowbell" interlude is not the dreamy pause it is under Zander, but that fits with Sanderling's interpretation and the "getting on with it" feeling presented thus far. When the march rhythms return, the percussion definitely has a much meaner quality to it. It is clear that while the bad times have not yet set in completely, Sanderling has a firm idea of where this symphony is going.
The Scherzo is placed second in this performance and is given a straight reading with no erratic tempo alterations that some conductors indulge in. The orchestra performs flawlessly here, as in the first movement, and again I was taken by surprise by some details I never before noticed; percussion effects and string dynamics come to mind. While the movement starts out in a stable 3/4 time, it slowly turns into the everything-goes horror movement I think Mahler was envisioning. Indeed, that horror movement idea is made very real with a percussion crash near the end that, for the moment, pushed everything else out of my head and made me think, "Woe, what just happened?" The ending of the Scherzo suggests just the tiniest bit of serenity, and that makes for a welcome transition into the Andante.
The Andante, like the Scherzo, is given a detached reading that, again, fits right in with Sanderling's interpretation of the first two movements. The Andante offers a momentary break from the terrible reality of the work, yet the listener does not become lost in the dream as so often happens. Sanderling's interpretation of the Andante is simply a statement of facts with no sentimentality about it, a 180-degree difference from an emotional approach like that by Leonard Bernstein or Sir Simon Rattle. And while some may find this approach dissatisfying--I myself am more on the emotional side and prefer this work performed as such--it only helps in the context of Sanderling's interpretation, and a deviation would detract from the bigger picture.
The Finale starts off with a percussion crash and a growl from the low instruments that brings the listener back into the thick of reality all too quickly. The opening section moves right along and develops into the first of several march segments; the timpani and symbols ring out in the march as I have never heard them before in this movement. (And I've listened to a lot of Mahler 6 Finales before--it is this movement with which I am most familiar!) As was the case in the previous three movements, I noticed details that I had not previously heard before; the prominently-placed symbol on the left-hand side comes to mind.
The build-up to the first hammer blow is taken just a bit slower than most; it is almost as if the hero has the slightest idea that something bad might be about to happen, and he is dragging his feet. The "whipped" passage between the two hammer blows is played very well and at a moderate tempo; the timpani and whip are very noticeable. Only in the area of string playing would I wish to look elsewhere--and to Zinman's Tonhalle recording it would be. The second hammer blow is nothing special; I expected a little more sound, but the timpanist hammering out the fate motif a few measures later made up for it.
The final march is energetic and hopeful; if Sanderling was holding back his orchestra before, he pulls out all the stops at this point. The A major section just before the passage where there was once a third hammer blow is energetic and victorious. But...despair returns as the strings lead the piece back into A minor. The brass coda moves right along, a simple, unsentimental statement of fact; there is no room for emotion, as if the hero is totally drained of all energy. The final closing A minor chord signifies the end of the piece in a way that would only be fitting in Sanderling's interpretation; the music is the only force telling the story right through the entire work, and it remains so to the very end.
Listening to this recording of Mahler's "Tragic" Sixth Symphony led me to explore the work in an entirely new way. I tend to take more to the personal and emotional side of this symphony, which this performance does not indulge in. I have heard it said that Sir Simon Rattle's City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra performance of the Sixth is a literal approach; particularly, in the finale the listener is "living" the tragedy being portrayed in the music. In this Sanderling recording, however, we as the listener do not have much emotional connection to the hero as we watch the tragedy unfold. Sure, there is emotion--and plenty of it--but it is a detached performance that even I, who tend to enjoy Benjamin Zander, Leonard Bernstein, and Sir Simon Rattles' interpretations in this score--definitely cherish and appreciate.