Back in the 1980s I discovered Mahler from the Tennstedt EMI LPs and although many of the conductor’s live Mahler performances have surfaced over the years on CD which are much beloved by Tennstedt fans, I still find something quite special about his studio Mahler recordings, and this Mahler 6 in particular.
When this recording came out in 1983 it was met with a blistering review by Richard Osborne in the Gramophone Magazine - ”cheap melodrama, a circus act of irredeemable vulgarity”.
In March 1987 Edward Seckerson interviewed Tennstedt in the same magazine. The author remarked that ”Tennstedt grows visibly heated when he talks about the Sixth”.
”The Sixth is a terrible thing. Terrible,” Tennstedt says. Prophetic of so many tragic events to come...
Seckerson probably describes this recording best： ”Tennstedt’s Sixth seems to me to represent all that is most compelling - and most dangerous - about his Mahler. Like Leonard Bernstein...he is not afraid to go wherever this music takes him - to the edge, and even beyond...Extreme music...demands an extreme response.”
Tennstedt’s recording does push this music to its extremes, maybe too much for many tastes, but perhaps getting more to the heart of Mahler’s fearsome, dark vision than many others.
Mahler’s wife Alma recollected the composer’s state of mind when the 6th was first performed - ”None of his works moved him so deeply at its first hearing as this. We came to the last rehearsals, to the dress rehearsal＆#8212;to the last movement with its three great blows of fate. When it was over, Mahler walked up and down in the artists’ room, sobbing, wringing his hands, unable to control himself. We stood transfixed, [along with the others in the room] not daring to look at one another.
On the day of the concert Mahler was so afraid that his agitation might get the better of him that out of shame and anxiety he did not conduct the symphony well. He hesitated to bring out the dark omen behind this terrible movement.”
While there may be some measure of ”melodrama” in all this, Tennstedt is not ashamed in this performance to give full vent to the emotional temperature of this most emotional music.
The expansive breadth, weight and tonal richness of the symphony are given full reign as well, but I think Tennstedt also does a fine job observing Mahler’s careful formal structure in this symphony, a scheme that seems purposed to keep the white heat of the emotional content from overwhelming the message.
I read in some other interview that Tennstedt was most proud of this recording among his Mahler cycle, that in spite of some mistakes by the players retained in the recording captured as he preferred in very few takes, the playing more importantly captured the power and sweep of this monumental music.
The recording itself on LP was always impressive in terms of its tonal warmth but frustrating in its lack of dynamic range and distortion. The original CD issue offered a cleaner and wider ranging sound, but lost some of its tonal color and richness of texture.
Now at last on SACD, it is possible to hear as never before, depending on your taste, this famous or infamous Mahler 6th.
Thanks to Toshiba EMI for this very fine mastering and wonderful packaging of one of my favorite recordings, and I hope that the other Tennstedt EMI Mahler recordings will enjoy this same exceptional ”Resurrection” from the vault!
