Mahler 6 BPO Kirill Petrenko

[David Boxwell]

The Berlin Phil's website is giving us free access for a time (due to COVID-19), so you can watch/listen to the 25 Jan, 2020 performance of the Tragic conducted by the new Chief.  Swift 1st movement (23 mins on the nose), Scherzo after Andante, 2 hammer blows.

See what all the fuss is about at Digitalconcerthall.com

[barryguerrero]

I watched it and thought it was fairly good - the equal of Abbado's Berlin M6, I suppose. I'm still not a fan of andante/scherzo. I also still feel that the BPO is a tad too slick for Mahler, with the edges too smoothed over - more suitable for R. Strauss than Mahler. I would still like to hear more Mahler from the Dresden Staatskapelle. 

[Russ Smiley]

I, too, listened last night (on cheap computer speakers). I didn't dislike the performance and might consider buying a recording if released. I liked the brisk tempo of the first movement, yet its sections seemed to be pretty well differentiated by Petrenko (rather than a homogeneous rush). The latter three movements seemed generally more 'typical'. The balance across the orchestra (microphones?) sometimes seemed puzzling (and there was a gong or bell that rang more prominently and dissonantly that I recall in any recording), but I am not going to quibble for a free, one-off broadcast.

Coincidentally, I had listened again to the Vanska/Minnesota M6 earlier in the day. I did not like that recording on my first listen and thought I should give it some time to come at it afresh. I was unaware of the BPO broadcast until later in the day, so I had an unplanned comparison at hand. There certainly there were significant differences, starting with the tempo in the first movements. I also found something disturbingly similar in the second, Andante moderato movement.

When I first listened to the Minnesota M6 a few weeks ago, I immediately noticed a change in the lyrical horn solo. I thought it must have been a mistake or a conductor edit. As an amateur horn player, I have the music and performed it in concert. Well, surprise surprise, the BPO principal horn played it the same way! I checked my music and sampled another recording just to confirm the change. I have to assume that the edition that the Berlin Philharmonic and Minnesota Orchestras are using is not only in the A/S order but has changes within the score, too (for me the horn solo being most notable). Does anybody here know the backstory?

Russ Smiley

[barryguerrero]

Russ, I don't know the backstory because I don't own one of the new 'urtext' editions. I'm more interested in digging around the first version of the symphony, which is what you see in the Dover Edition. Anyway, I know precisely where you're talking about in the Andante Moderato. It's not a big change - one that certainly has no bearing upon the 'bigger picture' - but I rather like it. I wouldn't call it an improvement, but at least it's something a little different.

I really do like the middle two movements of the Vanska M6. I like the slower tempo for the first movement's march too. I just wish the "Alma" theme (second subject) and the coda were done a bit better. I also like much of the finale, but not the extremely dragged out opening section. It's already long enough and slow enough, with the conductor needing to further drag it out.

I'd like to put in a bit of a plug for the new Paavo Jarvi/NHK Tokyo M6 on RCA. While there's nothing interpretative 'new' about it, it is in S/A order and all four movements are done really well. It's also well recorded. They performed it 'live' at Royal Albert Hall and received much praise from the jaded British press (the recording was made in Tokyo).