It’s nice that the Moravian Philharmonic can get itself together to put on a performance of Mahler’s Sixth, but the fact that such an event took place and was recorded is not sufficient justification for releasing it to the public at large. So I won’t waste your time: this is your basic, slightly below-average live provincial effort featuring a clearly struggling, underpowered orchestra, captured in okay broadcast quality sound. Petr Vronsky plays the Andante second, rips through the scherzo in 11 minutes, ensuring that the orchestra can barely keep up, but otherwise brings nothing memorable to the table. The performance is full of small but cumulatively irritating lapses in ensemble. Occasionally, and perhaps accidentally, we hear an inner voice or quirk of balance that might strike a seasoned listener as interesting–but then, after a point, anything different is interesting, isn’t it?
