This is a very well played, generally well recorded (with one exception) Mahler Sixth. I can well imagine it having earned the rave reviews that the live performances received in the British press. Mariss Jansons clearly has a good grasp of the Mahlerian idiom: all of the special effects such as the cowbell episodes, offstage chimes, and the hammer blows come off quite effectively. The LSO brass dominate the proceedings but acquit themselves admirably while the other sections of the orchestra sound as though they are playing at the top of their considerable form.
So what’s the problem? Well, there are two, or perhaps three, depending on your perspective. First, Jansons places the Andante second instead of third as we usually hear it. Now this is not the place to get into the tangled argument on the subject of Mahler’s indecision in this regard versus the musical arguments pro and con. I prefer the scherzo second–and I played this performance that way–so I don’t really care what any conductor does; I will simply listen as pleases me and so should you. The bigger issue that we need to consider is the slightly mechanical quality to the conducting that keeps the music from really cutting loose the way it should in such places as the coda of first movement, the torrential passage in the finale after the second hammer blow that leads back to the introduction, or the wind-dominated trios of the scherzo. In a symphony that consists largely of march-music, such stiffness is neither necessary nor especially desirable.
Add to this a problem of a different sort: recorded balances that don’t give the woodwinds sufficient prominence. Take the climax of the scherzo as one of many examples, and note how the wailing oboes and flutter-tonguing flutes fail to penetrate the texture as they should. The result robs the music of some of its bite and color. These aren’t terribly serious faults, particularly when the general level of achievement is so high technically, but competition in this music is as strong as it can be anywhere, and the result renders this disc more valuable as a souvenir of what undoubtedly was a splendid evening at symphony rather than a top choice in a very crowded field.
