Mahler - Symphony No. 6
Order, download and listen
Performers
Mariss Jansons, chief conductor (2004-2005)
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Mariss Jansons joins one of the greatest Mahler traditions in the world of symphonic music with his first recording of a Mahler symphony with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
The relationship between Gustav Mahler and the Amsterdam orchestra goes back to 1903, when the composer conducted his Third Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Mahler’s works have remained one of the fixed points — and famously so — of the programmes of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Conductor and musicians provide a superbly impressive performance on an extremely high level in this live performance of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, one of the greatest and most dramatic of Mahler’s works.
The recordings used in this release of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony were made during performances in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in the first weeks of the 2005-2006 season; these followed a tour of the great European concert halls in which the orchestra’s performances of the symphony had already made a great impression.
Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is followed on CD 2 by a recording of the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Sebastian im Traum in December 2005.
Sebastian im Traum is a commission from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Eduard van Beinum Stichting, the Tonhalle Gesellschaft Zürich and the New York Philharmonic.
Press quotes
‘One of the most powerful concerts that I have ever experienced’
- Kasper Jansen, NRC Handelsblad (Mahler 6 concert review)
‘Jansons takes his place in Amsterdam’s Mahler tradition with a thundering crash’
- Peter van der Lint, Trouw (Mahler 6 concert review)
‘The art of creating colours in sound is here taken to extremes’
- Thomas Schacher, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Mahler 6 concert review, Lucerne Festival)
‘On the occasion of the first combined performances of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle in the Wiener Festwochen concerts, we now pose a theoretical question: Which of the following would you most like to hear perform Mahler’s Sixth Symphony at this time?
- The Vienna Philharmonic
- The Berlin Philharmonic
- Both orchestras together
At this moment we would be inclined to say: None of the above, but rather a completely different combination — Mariss Jansons and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra.’
- Geko-Kurier Salzburg (Mahler 6 concert review, Salzburg Festival)
‘This Sunday evening in the Philharmonie was a highlight, perhaps even the highlight of the entire music festival’
- Wolfgang Fuhrmann, Berliner Zeitung (Mahler 6 concert review, Berliner Musikfest)
‘This was how it was meant to be’
- Barry Millington, The Evening Standard (Mahler 6 concert review, BBC Proms)
‘This was predictably going to be one of the season’s greatest Proms, but as ever with Jansons, he surpassed even the highest expectations’
- Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph (Mahler 6 concert review, BBC Proms)