In the summer of 1904, when the Sixth Symphony was
emerging from Mahler’s composing hut, life was very sweet for the Mahlers
and yet Gustav himself was mapping Downfall. Alone among his symphonies
this one ends in total negation after a last movement in which Humanity
and its very condition seems to be "dramatised" in music.
Like all great artists Mahler could see beneath the surface of life
and, in spite of his current situation, map the opposite. So the Sixth
is one of the great "human condition" works of the twentieth
century.
I also find it appropriate that the 1906 premiere took
place in Essen, the cradle of German industry. Those march rhythms,
mechanistic percussion and harsh-edged contrasts in the first two movements
share a kinship with where the work was first heard among the foundries
that would build the guns to spill the blood (Bismarck’s "blood and
iron") in World War One eight years later. So this is a twentieth century
symphony breathing as much the same air as Krupp as of Freud. Its concerns
are those of our time too because our time was formed as much in the
furnaces of Essen as it was in the consulting rooms of Vienna. Indeed
the liner notes to this new Herbig recording fascinatingly quote a review
of that 1906 premier that actually named the Sixth the "Krupp-Sinfonie".
Yet the Sixth is also the most classically conceived
of them all. The only conventional, four movements, one key symphony
that Mahler wrote, and that is central to its message too. This fierce
classical structure implies the same creative detachment demanded
by classical tragedy. I believe that any performance that will make
us appreciate its crucial Modernism has to take this into account as
well. Strip Mahler of nineteenth century sonorities and folk memories
and project, as on a bright stage, a bitter and unforgiving elegy that
opens out the tragedy into something universal though held at one remove
to reinforce Tragedy’s universality and contemporary relevance. Only
that way is the ultimate aim of classical tragedy, Purgation or Catharsis,
then achieved.
I am aware this is something of a controversial view
at odds with those who believe conductors of this work should try to
reflect in their interpretation that which they hear in the music rather
than err on the side of letting the music largely speak for itself.
But I’ll stick to my guns. This work must be framed by a wide degree
of creative detachment for it to make its real effect. This way it will
retain its power rather than dissipate it in bluster and hamming, as
it does under Tennstedt, for example. So for us to get closer to the
full implications of the Sixth I believe we must turn to the handful
of conductors who take this more circumspect, symphonically-aware approach,
essentially the Modernist approach, and I believe Gunter Herbig is among
them. As too, in slightly differing degrees, are Jascha Horenstein,
Georg Szell (Sony SBK47654), Pierre Boulez (DG 445 835-2), Michael Gielen
(Hännsler CD 93.029) whose recording I reviewed recently:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Mar02/Mahler6.htm
and, most notable of all, Thomas Sanderling whose great
recording I write about extensively in my survey of Mahler Sixth recordings:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/Mahler/Mahler6.htm
where I nominate it my favourite.
Unlike a lot of issues from Berlin Classics and its parent company Edel
this Herbig recording is not a reissue but a "live" performance
given in Saarbrücken in 1999. Like many "live" performances
gains markedly from the feeling of "concert hall theatre"
but with very few of the drawbacks. There are very few mistakes in the
playing and the audience is well behaved and attentive. In many ways
it reminds me of the recording by Georg Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra,
also made "live". Herbig shares Szell’s essentially dark-grained
vision but, most importantly, also his appreciation of how necessary
it is to see that darkness against those passages of light that do penetrate.
Only by showing us what our universal hero is going to lose can we appreciate
the magnitude of that loss when it finally comes. This is most important
in the third movement that under both men emerges as a real Andante,
not a slightly laboured near Adagio as it does, for example, under Michael
Tilson Thomas in his recent San Francisco version (SFS MEDIA 821936-0001-2)
which I reviewed recently too:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/May02/Mahler6_MTT.htm
Herbig and Szell allow the music of the Andante to
unfold without mannerism. Under Herbig, however, there is an ounce or
two more feeling that just evades Szell. Interestingly, both also leave
out the first movement exposition repeat and you need to be aware of
this when considering Herbig’s recording. However, as both recordings
were never originally intended for CD release this cannot be so they
could be fitted on one disc which is the impression I received from
Yoel Levi’s version, for example. The liner notes explain that Herbig
dropped the repeat because in the first half of this concert he gave
"Kindertotenlieder". So maybe it was considered the
concert would have been too long with the repeat. Though since the repeat
lasts around five minutes that seems rather puzzling. Whatever the reason
for leaving the repeat out, though I do believe it should always
be played, as with Szell I don’t think losing it damages Herbig’s performance
at all. His view of the first movement is on the grim and determined
side and not hearing the repeat adds to the performance’s sense of "getting
on with it" which brings its own dividends.
In the first movement the overall approach to tempo
seems to me to satisfy admirably Mahler’s apparently ambiguous demands.
It possesses both the forward momentum of the "Allegro energico"
but enough trenchancy to cope with the "ma non troppo"
that in turn allows the German sub-heading "Heftig, aber markig"
("Vehement, but pithy") to really tell. The latter
is, of course, more a "mood marking" than a tempo marking
and Herbig seems to read Mahler’s intentions with a rare and potent
intelligence. The mood is certainly grim and determined, as I said earlier,
but there is also a confidence, almost optimism, at the outset of the
journey towards tragedy that is compelling. What is more remarkable
again is that the constituent parts of the Exposition fit together seamlessly
with the "Schwungvoll" marking for the second subject
"Alma portrait" weighted just enough to let the passage emerge
with nobility but not hold up the progress of the argument. Note here
the excellent balancing of the orchestra’s sections so that the woodwinds
against the brass really sound distinctively edged. Contrapuntal detailing
everywhere else is clear too – celeste, woodwind alone and percussion
taps. Then in the Development Herbig’s delivery of the pastoral, cow-bell-accompanied
central section is cool and glacial, a ghostly pre-echo of the opening
of the fourth movement showing Herbig’s grasp of the bigger picture.
Note too the plangent woodwinds and the solo horn: expressive but within
bounds. This particular passage stays in the mind, which it has to since
it is one of the few times in this symphony when real, uncomplicated
light is let in on the gloom before the march imperative returns for
the Recapitulation. This latter is made more terrible here by the way
Herbig makes it seem to "mirror-image" the Exposition. But
after that the Coda is optimistic again. Launched from the wonderfully
heavy brass comes a message of hope not despair. As you can tell, Herbig
in fact covers a long a wide span of feeling.
The scherzo is placed second and the main material
has the same energetic thrust of the first movement but with the same
accompanying downforce to take in the "Wuchtig" ("Heavy")
marking Mahler asks for. Again the balance by Herbig is true. The trio
sections with Mahler’s ironic marking "Altvaterisch"
(literally "Old father-like" or "old-fashioned")
have the kind of mordancy that put me in mind of Otto Klemperer. Even
though Klemperer never conducted this work I wonder if these passages
would have sounded a little like this if he had. Herbig also attends
to the special rhythmic games contained in this movement. All the little
jumps and skips Alma Mahler maintained were her small children playing
in the sand are delivered well, but Herbig doesn’t use too heavy a hand
on them, like Levine or Tennstedt do. As always, Herbig’s judgement
is appropriate. However, this does not stop him making his brass players
reach down into the murky depths for those extraordinary passages of
Berg-like pre-echo. Thomas Sanderling is even more remarkable in this
movement, by the way. Blessed with the finer orchestra he manages to
project an even weirder experience overall. But Herbig comes closer
to his achievement than many do.
When I recently reviewed Michael Tilson Thomas’s San
Francisco version I drew attention to his slower-than-usual overall
tempo for the Andante. To me it seemed designed to turn this into a
conventional slow movement. Inappropriately so, I thought, though I
forgave Tilson Thomas, working as he was under the terrible shadow of
9/11 just twenty-four hours previous to the recording. But I am convinced
that Mahler had something subtler in mind and Herbig clearly seems to
believe this as well because this is one of the quickest accounts on
record, almost as fast as Szell’s. This music is always just a step
or two short of kitsch and it takes a firm hand like Herbig’s
to stop it descending into it. For an example of how good this movement
sounds under Herbig I would point to the central climax which is intensely
moving for its simple honesty and complete lack of overheating that
makes me admire Herbig even more. Here is a fine example of a conductor
who is self-effacing enough and confident enough in the music to let
the music make its own effect – the art that conceals the art. The cowbells
recall the first movement and there is a lovely "outdoor"
feel all through. Played like this it all emerges as a simple "song
without words" with kinship to the "Kindertotenlieder"
and more than enough respite from the fray of the rest to give us pause
for reflection before the final drama of the last movement.
Throughout the fourth movement Herbig’s grasp of the
symphonic logic that he has established from the first bar of the first
movement never fails him. Each ushering in by the upward sweep of the
violins of the unfolding four-part drama is almost as pointed as it
is under Thomas Sanderling. In the extraordinary opening passage the
clear and unfussy recording balance allows you to hear everything in
proper proportion, as it does too in the passage at 237-270 after the
second violin uprush brings in effectively the Development. This recalls
near-perfectly the pastoral interlude back in the first movement’s Development
section, so stressing symphonic logic again but also with the nagging,
worrying interpolations of new fourth movement material. This way Herbig
also communicates Mahlerian kaleidoscope. The build up to the first
hammer, which comes almost straight afterwards, takes place with admirable
but unforced inevitability and the hammer itself is well-placed and
distinctive. I also liked very much the way Herbig delivers the crucial
"whipped" passage (299-457) with the right amount of lift
and pressing forward. Tennstedt, for example, weighs this passage down
far too much where it is crucial we have the effect that our "hero"
is still alive and kicking, still with is head up.
Herbig and the orchestra give a towering performance
of the Recapitulation up to where Mahler originally placed a third hammer
blow but then withdrew it. There is power, the same clarity of attack
in the playing there has been from the start, momentum too, and the
realisation that this really is the hero’s last throw. The heavy brass
and percussion are balanced but do not overwhelm and the ascent to the
climactic moment where the third blow used to be is broad and well paced.
Following Mahler’s wishes Herbig accepts the Ratz edition’s leaving
out of the third hammer blow and vindicates that decision. All the damage
is done by now and the ultimate, crushing negation is to come in the
work’s coda. Under Herbig this is veiled and drear, all energy and passion
spent. The final percussion crash, followed by a mind-numbing delivery
by the timpanist of the last appearance of the fate rhythm and its dumping
of us poor listeners into cold oblivion, is absolutely shattering.
For me only Thomas Sanderling surpasses Gunter Herbig
in delivering what I believe to be the most appropriate approach to
this symphony. His wind lines jut out with a touch more character and
there is a degree more of the "Krupp-Sinfonie" about
his performance. This may have to do with the fact that in the St. Petersburg
Philharmonic he has the better orchestra and a closer-in recording to
really bring out the modern feel. The playing of the Saarbrücken
Orchestra for Herbig, however, is excellent throughout. Especially remarkable
for the fact that, unlike Tilson Thomas’s San Francisco recording, this
is just a single performance unedited. This radio orchestra may not
have the glamour and the corporate panache of Berlin, Vienna, New York
(or even San Francisco), but they more than make up for that in their
accuracy, commitment and sheer stamina. I do so agree with my colleague
Paul Serotsky in his vast review of the new Barshai Shostakovich cycle
that also features and excellent German radio orchestra like this when
he writes: "I generally find such orchestras far more exciting
than any of the pan-global mega-orchestras. For
a start, they often retain some local "flavour", and being somehow less
exalted and hence nearer the gut-level ground, they seem to be more
attuned to what it means to make real music for real people."
I thought the Saarbrücken woodwind especially
were full of sharp character and Herbig’s zeal to make us hear all the
complexities of Mahler’s counterpoint at every level is evident throughout.
The recorded sound from the Saarbrücken Radio
engineers is clear and detailed but there is sufficient air around the
instruments to give the impression of being at the performance which
fully deserves the enthusiastic applause it receives after a fitting
pause.
Thomas Sanderling’s version is quite hard to find these
days so Herbig’s now takes on an added importance. I know that some
will find it performance too austere, astringent, and I suppose it is
when compared with the likes of Bernstein, Rattle, Tennstedt and Barbirolli
who put more of their own emotional baggage into the score. Many will
prefer them but I beg to differ. My advice is to get the Herbig and
persevere with it because I am convinced this is the kind of recording
that delivers its effect over time. The kind of performance that is
more appropriate to what Mahler was trying to communicate in this grand
and terrible work. I believe that Günter Herbig has read
it dead right.
This is one of the very best recordings of Mahler’s
Sixth Symphony available. It is quite stunning in its concentration,
totally convincing in its drama and absolutely shattering in its implications.
I believe it will stand the test of time.
Tony Duggan
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester
Saarbrücken/Günter Herbig