# What is your favorite recording of Mahler 6?



## R3PL4Y

I have been listening to several different performances of this work recently, and none of them have really satisfied me. What are your favorite performances of this piece? These are the ones I have listened to recently.


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## DiesIraeCX

*1. *










*2.*


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## WaterRat

I think Barbirolli’s interpretation of the andante is the best I’ve heard, but he is too slow in the rest of the symphony.

Overall, I’ll go for Szell with the Cleveland Orchestra.


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## Ukko

Lombard/a Provincial French orchestra whose name I've forgotten. Mostly an interpretation thing, the playing wasn't great.


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## chesapeake bay

My current favorite for Mahler 6 is Concertgebouw with Maazel conducting


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## StlukesguildOhio

This is probably my favorite:


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## Mahlerian

I'll take the three listed by DiesIrae and StlukesGuildOhio, no ranking.


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## Chronochromie

The 1968 Haitink with the Concertgebouw, in this box set (also on Spotify):


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## Pugg

​
Karajan on DG, closely followed by Solti :tiphat:


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## DavidA

Pugg said:


> ​
> Karajan on DG, closely followed by Solti :tiphat:


Ditto but Karajan - no Solti


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## Chronochromie

Pugg said:


> ​
> Karajan on DG, closely followed by Solti :tiphat:


Just hope that Mahlerian doesn't see this.


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## Pugg

Chronochromie said:


> Just hope that Mahlerian doesn't see this.


Mahlerian sees everything, however polite enough to agree on disagree


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## Dr Johnson

Give this one a spin.

You can read a review *here.*


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## elgar's ghost

Bernstein (DG), Tennstedt (BBC) and Barbirolli (EMI).


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## techniquest

I have yet to hear a recording that surpasses this old Levine one with the LSO on RCA.


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## Triplets

Pugg said:


> ​
> Karajan on DG, closely followed by Solti :tiphat:


The Karajan is my favorite as well,followed by Abbado/Lucerne and Horenstein /Stockholm


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## Triplets

techniquest said:


> I have yet to hear a recording that surpasses this old Levine one with the LSO on RCA.
> 
> View attachment 84558


I like Levine 's Mahler, but in this work the strings run out of gas in the Andante


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## realdealblues

Leonard Bernstein/Vienna Philharmonic


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## jdec




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## D Smith

Ditto Bernstein/Vienna










Followed closely by Boulez/Vienna


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## padraic

elgars ghost said:


> Bernstein (DG), Tennstedt (BBC) and Barbirolli (EMI).


Exactly this for me.


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## WaterRat

I've been checking out some of the recommendations in this thread on youtube, apart from the ones I was already familiar with (Karajan, Solti).

So far I prefer Fischer.

Whilst perusing youtube I came across another version that I'll nominate as a dark horse candidate...






other movements:


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## superhorn

For me, Solti and the Chicago symphony on Decca is THE Mahler 6th . This is one of the few recordings of any of the great symphonies by any conductor which is my absolute favorite . I can't choose favorite recordings of other symphonies ; there are just too many outstanding ones .
Solti conducts like a man possessed and the CSO plays its collective heart out for him , and the final has a devastating power which is unsurpassed . 
The Haenchen recording , which was also available on the budget Laserlight label is very good, but the orchestra is the Netherlands Philharmonic, not the "Philharmonia Slavonica ", which as far as I know is not even an actual orchestra . It's a live recording from the Concwertgebuw hall in Amsterdam , and there is a glaring early entrance by the first trumpet in the finale. Otherwise the orchestra plays very well .


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## WaterRat

superhorn said:


> The Haenchen recording , which was also available on the budget Laserlight label is very good, but the orchestra is the Netherlands Philharmonic, not the "Philharmonia Slavonica ", which as far as I know is not even an actual orchestra . It's a live recording from the Concwertgebuw hall in Amsterdam , and there is a glaring early entrance by the first trumpet in the finale. Otherwise the orchestra plays very well .


I believe they are two different recordings. The Netherlands Phil is more recent, whereas the Philarmonia Slavonica recording dates from 1994 and is not a live recording (either that or the audience is exceedingly well behaved).

I do own the Chicago Solti, and it is very good in parts, especially in the vigorous rendition of the finale. But, the Haenchen Slavonica is my new fav.


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## Enthusiast

I would choose Jansons (LSO Live), Bernstein's grueling VPO account, the recent Pappano over most. I find the Karajan a little bland (you have to go to his 9ths to hear how well he got Mahler) but I wouldn't want to be without Barbirolli's recording and enjoy the feel of something dark and dangerous lingering behind Levi's recording. And Svetlanov's is a good one, too.


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## Guest

Enthusiast said:


> I would choose Jansons (LSO Live),


So would I, though 'choose' implies I have more than one...and I don't!


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## Guest

Pugg said:


> ​
> Karajan on DG, closely followed by Solti :tiphat:


+1 for both, with Sinopoli not far behind. I have a Japanese SACD of the Karajan--sounds fantastic!


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## joen_cph

I´ve got

- Scherchen,Leipzig
- Kubelik/DG LP
- Bernstein,NYPO
- Bernstein,VPO
- Barbirolli,NewPO LP
- Kondrashin,MosRSO
- Tennstedt,LPO
- Karajan,BPO/EMI 
- Horenstein/Unicorn LP

but no real favourite so far. Skipped Inbal.


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## Guest

D Smith said:


> Ditto Bernstein/Vienna
> 
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> 
> Followed closely by Boulez/Vienna


Aren't those two at the opposite ends of the expression range?


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## Mahlerian

Kontrapunctus said:


> Aren't those two at the opposite ends of the expression range?


Not really. I love both of them as well.


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## dieter

This was once my favorite Mahler symphony. Then I went off it completely. I likened it to being bludgeoned with a truncheon for 3 of the 4 movements, wondering what have I done to deserve this? What, overcooked the asparagus again, forgot to put the bins out, come home with another parking ticket?
Lately though, almost like a process akin to osmosis, I've come right around again. I have too many recordings to list - Szell, Tennstedt by 3, Bernstein DG, Levine, Maazel, Boulez, Abbado, Herbig, Inbal, Bertini, Kubelik, Barbirolli, Tabakov, Neumann, I. Fischer, Gielen,pappano, Mitropoulis, Thomas Sanderling,Haenchen, Tilson Thomas - and in the end, I love the Tennstedt EMI, Neumann, Inbal and Barbirolli the most.
What a great piece of music.


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## Guest

Ooh - I get to add one that nobody has listed. Whether that is good or bad, who knows. But my favorite for a while now is the relatively new recording by Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra, on Ondine. I bought it originally looking for a recording of the Mahler Piano Quartet, but fell in love with the Mahler 6th on it.


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## realdealblues

DrMike said:


> Ooh - I get to add one that nobody has listed. Whether that is good or bad, who knows. But my favorite for a while now is the relatively new recording by Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra, on Ondine. I bought it originally looking for a recording of the Mahler Piano Quartet, but fell in love with the Mahler 6th on it.
> 
> View attachment 84819


I like that recording too. Bought it for the Piano Quartet but found I enjoyed Eschenbach's take on the 6th as well.


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## MarkW

Well, unusually, probably the Leinsdorf/BSO -- but that's because it was the recording I learned the piece on, and with Mahler I tend to favor more intellectual approaches (it was also pretty much to only contemporaneous antidote to the first Bernstein recording, which was wildness personified  )


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## ViatorDei

As I have mentioned elsewhere, dividing up the symphony into different performances, I like: 6.1 - Boulez; 6.2 - Gielen; 6.3 - Levi; 6.4 - Herbig. With that said, as a whole, my favorite integral performance is probably Herbig's. I must add too, however, that Mitropoulos is absolutely fantastic as an interpreter (if you don't mind the old school recording too much). Mitropoulos' final bars of the fourth movement are without par in their conveyance of the horror and terror of the utter despair the symphony ends in. Such blackness was never so noble and awful...


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## bz3

Bernstein NYPO, Barbirolli, and Sanderling in no order. Like most Mahler symphonies I find enjoyment in many other interpretations of this symphony, though. Only in 2 and 5 am I wary of straying from the beaten path.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT

bz3 said:


> Bernstein NYPO, Barbirolli, and Sanderling in no order.


Exactly the same here. I've listened to the Barbirolli most - because I've owned it for 3 decades! - so I'll give Sir John the laurels for that reason alone. All three are superb recordings, however... and there are many more. For such a pessimistic symphony, the Sixth has been rather "lucky" on disc.


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## Mahlerian

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> Exactly the same here. I've listened to the Barbirolli most - because I've owned it for 3 decades! - so I'll give Sir John the laurels for that reason alone. All three are superb recordings, however... and there are many more. For such a pessimistic symphony, the Sixth has been rather "lucky" on disc.


It took a long time to get there. The work languished in a rarely-performed and unrecorded state for several decades after its failure at its premiere. It's to Mahler's credit that he didn't listen to his critics.


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## DavidA

joen_cph said:


> I´ve got
> 
> - Scherchen,Leipzig
> - Kubelik/DG LP
> - Bernstein,NYPO
> - Bernstein,VPO
> - Barbirolli,NewPO LP
> - Kondrashin,MosRSO
> - Tennstedt,LPO
> - Karajan,BPO/EMI
> - Horenstein/Unicorn LP
> 
> but no real favourite so far. Skipped Inbal.


Pedantic note:
Karajan recorded it for DG not EMI


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## joen_cph

DavidA said:


> Pedantic note:
> Karajan recorded it for DG not EMI


Indeed, a mistake. The DG, of course.


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## Johnnie Burgess

StlukesguildOhio said:


> This is probably my favorite:


I love that one also.


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