Symphony No. 6

Hybrid/SACD - playable on all compact disc players

"There is a raw brutality to the timps crashing out the fate rhythm in the opening bars of the last movement. Throughout, Tilson Thomas is back in symphonic mode, the immense drama delivered with stunning immediacy and impressive reach, but with a real sense of the greater picture again. At no time does Tilson Thomas's grip on where the music has been and where it is going falter. His orchestra seem prepared to follow him into hell. In the final bars the timps just fail to quite penetrate and the last pizzicato note is just too emphatic, but these are small quibbles in a presentation of this extraordinary music to round off a performance that immediately goes into the top flight. The two hammer blows themselves are certainly distinctive but they appear to be just cracks on a large bass drum thus, I think, somewhat short-changing Mahler's intentions, but Tilson Thomas is hardly alone in that. In fact he seems to have gone for musical effect rather than sound effect. Benjamin Zander always goes to great trouble to deliver the best hammers as is shown in his IMP recording and will also, no doubt, in his forthcoming Philharmonia version for Teldec....This a Mahler Sixth Symphony with contemporary resonance superbly played and recorded. It competes with the best."
(MusicWeb May 2002)