(I'm replying to my own posting: is that legal?)
I just watched the DVD. It is engaging and interesting. The occasional panoramic videography is grand yet subdued. I didn't find interviews or expositions overly long. Some may quibble with the historical details or assertions: I'm not qualified to do so. There are lots of details here and there about the mechanics of the performance - about where to put the unseen cowbells, experiments to get the hammer blows right, accents and bowings in strings, horns being too loud, etc.
However, while ostensibly about the Sixth, it is really as much or more about the Tonhalle, its members, and its conductor. As a member of a community orchestra (Borodin 2 tomorrow night), I was impressed by the spirit, the fresh approach, and positive attitudes. The concert mistress speaks to the conductor by his first name: no fear but teamwork throughout the ranks. Eyes are upon conductor, music, and colleagues in equal parts. The musicians are experiencing the music, not automatons grinding it out. A the recording session playbacks it looked like half the orchestra was in the booth to evaluate the takes. During the live performance there are smiles exchanged (and the camera caught some sheepish winces, too). After the final pluck, when Zinman drops his arms, the audience erupts, and so too the smiles and claps in the orchestra.
