Sanderling/St.Petersburg/Real Sound M6 revist

[Leo K]

Just some thoughts while I consider this M6 recording:




The 6th obviously sounds dark and tragic, but I’ve always felt it has more subtlety than the tragic ‘thumping’ usually associated with its sound.

There are moments of arresting lyrical, pastoral beauty that hasn’t been discussed enough IMO. In the first and last movements, Mahler’s use of cowbells (a really inspired touch) evokes his hikes up the sides of the Austrian mountains. The third movement (sometimes switched into the 2nd movement spot)holds the most tender melodic colorization I’ve ever heard in phrasing and instrumental imagination. Even the wild finale shows an optimistic confidence most of the way, which is effective contrast to the dark coda.

In my mind, Mahler found the right balance between the tragic and the ‘happy’, and he plays out this out realistic by highlighting the happy corners we all find within the dirty ‘city’ of life. He does takes happiness into account, rather than over dramatize the bleak disillusionment.

Conductor Benjamin Zander has always said there are perhaps two versions of the 6th:

--The one that Mahler composed.

--And the one that Mahler performed.

This is a controversal view in Mahler scholarship. Mahler once wrote that his 6th would be pose "conundrums" and would be a "hard nut" to crack for future generations. Little did he know that the conundrum would lay in the confusion over the 'correct 'order of the two inner movements...the scherzo and andante. How the confusion started is an interesting story, and now a part of the work's history and performing tradition. More and more, this issue becomes a non-issue the more I discover this work, especially though this great Sanderling recording...here the architecture seems allowed to take care of itself as the players execute the score in a foward looking way...allowing all the "negativity" or "positivity" to be what it is, without hardly any "underlining" in an obvious way...letting the listener to listen without any help.

The first person to hear the 6th Symphony was Mahler's wife Alma. In August of 1904, he played the whole work for her at the piano. According to Alma, they both "wept that day."  Of course we can't always trust her memoirs regarding her husband, but I can imagine this happening, at least playing her the whole score on the piano.  I like to imagine what this first hearing of the symphony to another person's ear and mind must of been like...how the music sounded...and the tempos played and the dynamics used.  However it sounded, it went with Gustav and Alma when they died and were buried.

Mahler conducted the 6th Symphony in the city of Essen on May 27, 1906. At the reheasal he used the original Scherzo/Andante order...was this the last time he played it this way?  Yet at the actual concert the movements of the 6th were performed in the new revised order:

Allegro energico
Andante moderato
Scherzo
Finale (with the 3 hammer blows still intact)

Did Mahler quietly make this revision without telling his wife? I’m not sure, but we do know that Alma witnessed his anxiety at the premiere, which she attributed to the “’dark omen’ underlying the ‘three great blows of fate’ in the finale.”

Mahler’s revision here reminds me of Dylan’s lyrical revisions for some of his songs on Blood On The Tracks. Dylan’s revised songs were wonderful, but they aren’t as personal, or naked. Sorry to backtrack again to this issue, but in my opinion, the 6th has more bite and fear with the scherzo played before the andante, and with the third hammer blow left in. The first version of the 6th is as intimate as Mahler and Alma alone together…crying at the piano in their house, or on an outing with their children, who laugh but also cry, and play in the sun. Okay, I'll refrain from sentimentality, but it's hard when it comes to Mahler!

At the same time, I can appreciate Mahler’s revision…the emotional impact of the work takes on another story when the andante is played before the Scherzo. When the andante is played right after the 1st movement (when ends in a major key), it can be heard as a tender interlude, a daydream, perhaps an illusion of happiness, especially if the conductor shortens the length (by speeding up the tempo) and doesn’t exaggerate the swells, upheaval and romance of the strings. I’ve read opinions that suggest the best interpretation of the andante (played before the scherzo) is one that acts like a entr’acte, or lyrical break avoiding a dramatic swell of emotion…plays it subtler. I tend to agree with this.

If the andante is played after the Scherzo, in my mind it sounds better to let loose and really play up the cliché romantic swells and turn it into a real journey, like Bernstein and Karajan does. Here the andante is an ocean of bliss…a love that is killing the hero…binding him to existence with no mercy…an existence of physical and emotional attraction he can’t turn from, can’t escape, yet still so beautiful. Placed third, the andante is a perfect introduction to the final curtain of the finale.

Then again, more and more I like the "coldness" of Sanderling's account...just the facts maam...not too romantic, but perhaps not too cold either....finding the right balance and letting proceedings flow without hang ups...more like the cool, distant eye of Kurosawa...gazing apathetically over a universe, with no judgement or conceit or morals. I can dig this...and do more and more in my listening to faster performances of Mahler.  Perhaps this really is the best way...but many views are always possible I guess.


--Todd

[Don]

Both Sanderlings, Kurt and Thomas (father and son), have recorded some excellent Mahler. K Sanderling's M10 on Berlin Classics is one I turn to frequently. He uses the Cooke II version with some additions of his own in the percussion and in some tempi. Quite a convincing performance. K Sanderling's BBC M9 is well regarded. It is a noble, almost patrician account of the work, but never dull. He did a M9 in Berlin but I have not heard that one. He did little other Mahler that was recorded. There is a M4 and a DLvdE from Berlin available, neither of which I have heard.

T Sanderling's Mahler is similar to his father's. Very cool, noble and letting the music speak for itself. I have long been impressed with the T Sanderling 6th. I do not see that this recording is available any longer, but I did not do an exhaustive search.

[barry guerrero]

As you know, I feel that the A/S or S/A issue should be answered by which combination works best in any particular performance. S/A works great in the Sanderling version because the scherzo starts pretty much at the same tempo as the first movement's ending. Hence, there's a genuine feeling of continuation - first movement and scherzo working together to make for a unified "part I". Further more, Sanderling observes Mahler's "Andante Moderato" (not Adagio) marking for the slow movement. Due to issues of tempo relationships and greatly protracted slow movements, both MTT/SFSO and Karajan/BPO work better played back in A/S order. Well, for me anyway.

Why such a liberal attitude? Because no matter how you slice and dice it (I prefer S/A, on the whole), Mahler 6 remains primarily a finale driven symphony. Sanderling's finale is outstanding, in my opinion.

Barry