Welcome to ‘Dodd’s Discoveries’, a review series from NativeDSD Senior Music Reviewer Bill Dodd. This series focuses on Bill’s latest selections, with new reviews regularly. And the best part… the albums featured in the most current review will be available at a reduced price! Click the button below to see all of Dodd’s Discoveries and to find the current album(s) on sale.
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Tragic? Who wants to listen to tragic! I mean really! Sure, Mahler has the occasional funeral march in his symphonies. Some say you can hear Mahler’s last breath in his Ninth. Some say you can even what sounds like the end of the world in the Second. And let’s face it, nobody writes symphonies about bunny rabbits and picnics, although Ludwig comes close with his 6th.
The fact is, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 is full of dramatic music, as well as wonderfully romantic music. Native DSD has three very fine recordings of the Sixth available, but I’ve discovered there’s a lot I really like about this one with Martin Sieghart and the Arnheim Philharmonic Orchestra. The others, Ivan Fischer with the BFO, and Mariss Jansons with the Concertgebouw are superb, of course, but they all have interpretive differences.
Sieghart takes more time with the first movement, but it never drags. There’s more of a dramatic feel, but this drama never weighs you down. He pays attention to details, but doesn’t lose sight of the whole.
And then there’s the order of the movements. Mahler originally placed the Scherzo second and the Andante third, but he changed his mind, and reversed the order before the premiere in 1906. Musicologists have been arguing about it ever since! Most conductors today follow Mahler’s final decision, with the Andante second and Scherzo third. But many famous conductors feel that Mahler’s original idea better preserves the symphony’s dramatic structure, and that’s how Sieghart and the Arnheim Philharmoic play it here. I’m not sure that it makes a great difference either way, but I personally favor the Scherzo-Andante order.
The recording quality is spectacular in both 2 channel, and multi-channel.
My final thought: Don’t be put off by “Tragic.” It’s wonderful.
