I happened to have a ticket to London on the day the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Harding were performing Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. Just that – the need to fit a 2-hour concert later in the evening meant that even with a 6.30 start there was no time for a curtain-raiser such as a Mozart or Haydn symphony, a piece of Second Viennese School, or Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony<\/i>, which I feel is the subtext to Mahler’s Sixth – I seemed to hear fragments of it all over the place.<\/p>\n
I was impressed by much of the playing, though mainly by wind and brass rather than the strings that this orchestra is famous for. While I’m used to orchestras playing behind their conductor’s beat, the time lag here was unusually large, and there were moments of ragged ensemble.<\/p>\n
I’m probably not the person to ask about the merits of the interpretation, as I’m not really a Mahlerian. The slow movement came second, which is the order I favour as it then separates two faster, urgent movements. Though as tempi were on the steady side, they could have got away with the other order too. I was carried along without feeling overwhelmed, which probably makes it a failure on the Mahler ratings scale. But at least I have now heard the VPO live.<\/p>\n
I went to another<\/a> performance some years back though don’t remember enough now to compare the two.<\/p>\n Reviews: <\/p>\n I happened to have a ticket to London on the day the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Harding were performing Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. Just that – the need to fit a 2-hour concert later in the evening meant that even with … Continue reading \n