# Recommended Recordings of Mahler 6



## Cosmos

Please, PLEASE, accept my apology for starting a thread that has probably been made hundreds of times before me, but in trying to search for a similar discussion on here, I was overwhelmed by just how many Mahler threads exist.

Anyway, as part of my going through the list of Boulez's Top 10 works of the 20th century, I saw that he includes the 6th. One of my favorites, but I only have one recording in my collection: Haitink with the CSO










So, to change things up, I'm going to find a different performance. What would you guys recommend?


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## Triplets

I have the one you have, having attended the Concerts from which it was generated. It's ok, but not exceptional.
Let's lay aside the whole Scherzo Andante issue, because one can always reprogram a CDP or a playlist. My personal favorites:
1) Karajan/BPO (I hope Mahlerian doesn't see this)
2) Bernstein/NYP
3) Abbado/Lucerne
4) MTT/SFSO
5) Horenstein/Stockholm (really 2nd rate Orchestra keeps this down)

I have heard, and don't care for, Barbirolli, MacKerras, Kubelik, and Levine
Szell is worth a listen, but he makes a lot of cuts in the score


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## Cosmos

Thanks for the list! What makes the Karajan/BPO controversial?


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## Triplets

I guess we'll wait for Mahlerian to weigh in
Oh,and since you are a fellow Chicago guy,Solti has an opening unlike any other that I have heard; he makes the double basses sound like slithering snakes. Once past that, however, his intensity and lack of irony become wearying


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## StlukesguildOhio

I quite like Klaus Tennstedt, Claudio Abbado, and Leonard Bernstein.


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## D Smith

Bernstein and Boulez are my two favourites of the 6th.


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## StlukesguildOhio

Oops! I forgot Sir John Barbirolli.


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## Mahlerian

Triplets said:


> My personal favorites:
> (I hope Mahlerian doesn't see this)
> 2) Bernstein/NYP
> 3) Abbado/Lucerne
> 4) MTT/SFSO
> 5) Horenstein/Stockholm (really 2nd rate Orchestra keeps this down)


See what?





Cosmos said:


> Thanks for the list! What makes the Karajan/BPO controversial?


It's a horrible desecration of the score, which ignores just about all of Mahler's orchestral balances as well as many of his directions.

Other than that, it's fine, of course. Very clean, pretty, and completely soulless.

I prefer Tennstedt (especially the live one on the LPO's own label), Abbado (the Berlin, but the Lucerne is fine too), and Bernstein (the DG one with Vienna). Boulez would be on the next tier, a finely dramatic and taut reading, but not my first choice.


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## Triplets

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Oops! I forgot Sir John Barbirolli.


Zzzzzzzzzzzz.....


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## Triplets

Mahlerian said:


> See what?
> 
> 
> 
> It's a horrible desecration of the score, which ignores just about all of Mahler's orchestral balances as well as many of his directions.
> 
> Other than that, it's fine, of course. Very clean, pretty, and completely soulless.
> 
> I prefer Tennstedt (especially the live one on the LPO's own label), Abbado (the Berlin, but the Lucerne is fine too), and Bernstein (the DG one with Vienna). Boulez would be on the next tier, a finely dramatic and taut reading, but not my first choice.


I think Herbie nails the Andante like no one else. I don't know if the orgiastic climax is exactly as GM marked it, but my guess is if he didn't mark it that way, he would have after hearing this recording. The Composer was known to change his mind a few times, after all...I would place Boulez in the soulless category . Horses for courses...


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## Mahlerian

Triplets said:


> I think Herbie nails the Andante like no one else. I don't know if the orgiastic climax is exactly as GM marked it, but my guess is if he didn't mark it that way, he would have after hearing this recording. The Composer was known to change his mind a few times, after all...I would place Boulez in the soulless category . Horses for courses...


To me, Karajan's andante misses the mark entirely. Mahler's lyricism and the countermelodies and the color of his orchestra are missing, replaced with a generic Straussian lushness of the kind that Mahler despised. Boulez's andante, on the other hand, is a version I find moving and beautiful.

Mahler as conductor was known for clarity, nuance, and dedication to the message of the composer. One of his critics complained that the newly exposed lines in a Beethoven symphony should have been kept hidden. To me, this implies that a recording that hides the details of Mahler's works is one that misses the point; Mahler's symphonies are not primarily homophonic music, and they should not be treated that way.


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## Triplets

I find Mahler to be a Composer that is remarkably free of interpretive dogmatism. Conductors as diverse as Bernstein, Boulez, Adler, Horenstein, Abbado, Scherchen, Gielen etc can all approach from different perspectives and illuminate different facets of his Art. That doesn't make it 'Conductor-proof"--far from it-- but just as his Symphonies were meant to encompass the World, there is a mighty big tent required to fit in all the valid viewpoints.
I find Von K's 6th to be valid. It certainly isn't the only way to approach the work. His 5th and 9th miss the mark, and I agree with your comments if they were directed at those recordings. I haven't heard his Fourth. His Sixth, however, for me, is indispensable.


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## Mahlerian

Triplets said:


> I find Mahler to be a Composer that is remarkably free of interpretive dogmatism. Conductors as diverse as Bernstein, Boulez, Adler, Horenstein, Abbado, Scherchen, Gielen etc can all approach from different perspectives and illuminate different facets of his Art. That doesn't make it 'Conductor-proof"--far from it-- but just as his Symphonies were meant to encompass the World, there is a mighty big tent required to fit in all the valid viewpoints.
> I find Von K's 6th to be valid. It certainly isn't the only way to approach the work. His 5th and 9th miss the mark, and I agree with your comments if they were directed at those recordings. I haven't heard his Fourth. His Sixth, however, for me, is indispensable.


See, when you say it like that, I can't help but agree.

I still find Karajan's Sixth infuriatingly wrong-minded, though.


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## Jeffrey Smith




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## Pugg

*Bernstein*( first recording)* Solti */ *Karajan* /* Bernstein* (second recording):tiphat:


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## dieter

Triplets said:


> I guess we'll wait for Mahlerian to weigh in
> Oh,and since you are a fellow Chicago guy,Solti has an opening unlike any other that I have heard; he makes the double basses sound like slithering snakes. Once past that, however, his intensity and lack of irony become wearying


Like all of Solti's Mahler:v8, sonic boom, lightning hitting an outhouse...


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## dieter

StlukesguildOhio said:


> Oops! I forgot Sir John Barbirolli.


I love the grunting opening.


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## Triplets

dieter said:


> I love the grunting opening.


Sounds like an old man with gas to me


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## Dr Johnson

This version by Mariss Jansons is worth a listen. You can read a review of it here.


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## realdealblues

Bernstein/NYP still holds a special place in my heart and is highly recommendable but the Bernstein/Vienna performance on DG is probably the must own recording when it comes to Mahler's 6th in my book. 

I still like Thomas Sanderling/St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra but it's out of print and very hard to find. 

Surprisingly Christoph Eschenbach/Philadelphia has an exceptional recording and is coupled with the rarely heard Piano Quartet.

Recordings from Yoel Levi/Atlanta and Michael Gielen/SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden/Freiburg would round out my elite Mahler 6th recordings.

I like some of the others mentioned but the above to me are the top tier.


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## Bruckner Anton

I havent heard this version yet. But his version with BPO on Philips is one of my best.


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## techniquest

I'm no expert whatsoever, but I have been listening to Mahler for many years and for me the two best recordings of the 6th remain Barbirolli with the New Philharmonia, and Levine with the LSO.


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## dieter

realdealblues said:


> Bernstein/NYP still holds a special place in my heart and is highly recommendable but the Bernstein/Vienna performance on DG is probably the must own recording when it comes to Mahler's 6th in my book.
> 
> I still like Thomas Sanderling/St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra but it's out of print and very hard to find.
> 
> Surprisingly Christoph Eschenbach/Philadelphia has an exceptional recording and is coupled with the rarely heard Piano Quartet.
> 
> Recordings from Yoel Levi/Atlanta and Michael Gielen/SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden/Freiburg would round out my elite Mahler 6th recordings.
> 
> I like some of the others mentioned but the above to me are the top tier.


I like the Gielen and the Sanderling as well. I haven't heard the Eschenbach but I find him an interesting musician.


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## hpowders

Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic is exhausting emotionally and IMO, one of the greatest performances of Mahler 6 I could ever hope to hear.


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## elgar's ghost

Despite issues with sound quality I love Tennstedt's 1983 live version with the LPO but it irks me that the post-production engineers couldn't find away to edit out the 'BRAVO!' which was bellowed with nothing less than indecent haste by an over-excited and/or well-fuelled punter when the final note barely had the chance to die away. My other favourite is Bernstein on DG.


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