Symphony No. 6

The 2015 Munich concert year began at the end of January with two highlights: two performances of Bruckner's Sixth Sympho ny with Mariss Jansons conducting the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. The live recording, previously reserved exclusively for subscribers to the orchestra, is now being released on CD by BR-KLASSIK - an outstanding interpretation of one of the most important compositions in the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire. For a long time, Anton Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony (along with his Second) was regarded as something of a ‘poor relation’ in his immense symphonic oeuvre, even though the composer himself had moodily referred to it as his "boldest".

These pre-Chicago recordings of Fritz Reiner with the Pittsburghers is a reminder of his greatness as a conductor. It also restores to the catalog his recordings of some composers he wasn't closely identified with. Shostakovitch, for example, wasn't a regular on Reiner's studio schedule, but should have been, for this Sixth bristles with sardonic wit and energy. The Kodaly Dances, of course, were right up Reiner's alley, and get a smashing performance. The shorter works too, are first class, especially the Bart243;k Hungarian Sketches and another Reiner calling card, Kabalevsky's Overture.

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, universally known as the Pathétique, is among the most deeply moving and profound of all works. An enduring masterwork which Tchaikovsky considered to be his greatest composition. Once again the struggle against ‘fate’ is central to this symphony which was to be the last Tchaikovsky wrote. The première took place in October 1893 at St. Petersburg and just eight days later the composer was dead. Few farewells in music are more poignant.

When Kirill Petrenko performed Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony with the Berliner Philharmoniker in March 2017, one critic was ''stunned at how beautiful and breathtakingly exciting this music can be''. This first audio release of the orchestra and its new chief conductor reflects the whole sonority and intensity of the interpretation - and offers a taste of an exciting new beginning.

With 6 Anissimov is back in peak form and certainly beats out the other Russian contenders for the title…Anissimov and his Moscow players give an excellent account of themselves, and the engineers have obliged with truly room-filling volume, taking care to bring out the deep bass and rich, dark coloring so important for a full appreciation of the score. There's nothing subtle about the playing — especially the trenchant low brass — but then save for the central sections there's not much that's subtle about the music either, and Anissimov's exuberant embrace of the outer movements is immensely satisfying.

Einar Englund passed away in 1999 at the age of 83. One of Finland’s main symphonists from the post-Sibelius era, he left seven symphonies and six concertos for various solo instruments. The Cello Concerto was written in 1954. It’s a brilliant work whose melodic and rhythmic patterns bear the unequivocal imprint of Bartók. The latter’s presence is so strong in every detail that one could easily take the piece for a recently rediscovered posthumous concerto by the Hungarian composer! Some kind of achievement in itself… Subtitled “Aphorisms”, the 6th Symphony was composed exactly 30 years later, and shows a much more personal style.

The playing by the orchestra is super-human. This recording is by far the best performance in their already excellent series.

Anton Bruckner’s 6th Symphony was written between 1879 and 1881: a very happy time in his life. Unlike most of Bruckner’s symphonies, the 6th was not revised. Of all his works, this one seems to come from a single source of inspiration. Bruckner himself called it his “boldest” symphony – probably due to its extreme degree of motivic, rhythmic and harmonic originality. This live recording of the seldom‐performed 6th Symphony is the next instalment of the acclaimed Bruckner cycle by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Daniel Barenboim.

Since Sergiu Celibidache s appointment as their chief conductor in 1979, the Munich Philharmonic developed into one of the finest orchestras in the world. Their performances of Bruckner, in particular, were in a class of their own and where orchestra and conductor truly excelled. It is in the symphonies of Anton Bruckner that the grandeur of the music unfolds organically, its power innocent of all brutality, its monumentality issuing from stillness and austerity. Says Celibidache, "Every performance of a Bruckner symphony is a first performance, every rehearsal is a thousandfold NO designed to achieve a single YES."

Mahler’s Sixth Symphony features both contrast and controversy. While it’s his darkest, he composed it at high point in his life. Conductors often quarrel over the correct order of the movements…