MAHLER, G.: Symphony No. 6 in A minor, "Tragic" (Bernstein)
Orchestra:
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor:
Bernstein, Leonard
Composer:
Mahler, Gustav
Symphony No. 6 in A Minor, "Tragic"
Venue: Grosser Musikvereinssaal, Vienna
Date of Concert: 1976
Playing Time: 01:25:06
Television Director:
Burton, Humphrey
Producer:
Hohlfeld, Horant
Catalogue Number: A05004544
Long considered as a particularly demanding and difficult work, the Symphony No. 6 in A minor was begun in 1903, completed the following year and premiered in Essen on 27 May 1906. Superficially, it is the most conventional in that it follows the traditional four-movement form and ends in the key in which it begins. Although this key, A minor, is a tragic one in Mahler's oeuvre, the work itself is not a song of despair, but a dense and forceful testimony of furious inner battles whose outcome remains unclear until the very end.
Leonard Bernstein was the first conductor ever to record all of Mahler's symphonies not only on disk, but also on video. The Mahler cycle was the first project in the more than 20-year-long association between Leonard Bernstein and Unitel. The leading Mahler interpreter of our time, Bernstein recorded all of Mahler's symphonies between 1971 and 1985, chiefly with the Vienna Philharmonic, producing a unique musical document and triggering a major re-appreciation of Mahler's works.
