“During a 2008 tour stop at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Cynthia Yeh, principal percussion, wields the hammer of fate as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performs Mahler’s Symphony No.6 [Bernard Haitink conducting]. Todd Rosenberg Photography.“

Friday, September 6, 2024

Royal Albert Hall, London

Relatively new to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra he may be, nevertheless Simon Rattle’s Mahler discography is already swelled via Munich, with a Ninth Symphony, https://www.colinscolumn.com/br-klassik-releases-simon-rattle-conducting-mahlers-ninth-symphony-with-the-bavarian-radio-symphony-orchestra/, and indeed a Sixth. The latter was the sole act for this Prom, launched by Sir Simon on the quick side, and, at least as broadcast, somewhat lightweight in terms of sonics, and description. First-class playing, yes, although there was little sense of determination, of trying to escape demons. The episode with cowbells (pastures new) was magical though – lovely horn and violin solos – but such serenity … to do with what? Equally the triumph of achieving sanctuary at the first-movement’s close was without emotional import. That said, the second-placed slow movement was most eloquently expressed, radiant, rapt, with peaks of passion surfacing and intensifying. From something celestial to earthy tramping, the Scherzo, edgily detailed and fluidly traversing the trio sections – unsettling – and into the Finale, charging ahead once into the music’s stride, only to be felled by well-judged (in terms of timbre and impact) hammer-blows, twice. Signs of recovery, but progress weakened; so that the third blow wasn’t needed for Fate to emerge victorious… the Symphony’s end “bleakly pessimistic” said Bruno Walter, who I believe never conducted the Sixth. What had seemed underwhelming had turned the tables on this listener.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0022c6v

https://www.classicalsource.com/article/gustav-mahlers-sixth-symphony-andante-scherzo-or-scherzo-andante

The Lebrecht Interview/Simon Rattle: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00224gb

BBC Proms 2024 – Prom 61: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Simon Rattle conducts UK premiere of Thomas Adès’s Aquifer, and Bruckner’s ‘Romantic’ Symphony. Live on BBC Radio 3.