LSO Live: LSO0661

Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A minor 'Tragic'

In March 2008 LSO Live will release its first recording with the orchestra's Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev. It is also Gergiev's first commercial recording of a Mahler symphony and marks the start of a complete cycle of the composer's symphonies.

Watch a 4 minute video of Gergiev on Mahler

Gergiev is conducting the cycle in concert with the LSO in London and on tour in Europe throughout the 2007-2008 season. The concerts culminate in performances of the Symphony No. 8 at St Paul's Cathedral in July 2008.

The LSO has a formidable reputation in Mahler's music, having worked in concert and in the studio with many of the greatest Mahler exponents. The intensity and drama which Gergiev brings to Mahler's music promises to produce one of the most astounding of cycles.

Following No. 6, three further releases in the cycle will appear during 2008 with the remainder to follow in 2009.

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Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A minor 'Tragic'

DSD recording, live at the Barbican November 2007

London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev

Valery Gergiev's eagerly anticipated debut recording for LSO Live is also his first recording of Mahler's music and the first in a complete cycle of the composer's symphonies. Recorded in November 2007 as part of his sensational concert series of the symphonies, Gergiev delivers an intensely emotional account of this pivotal work. Does Mahler’s Sixth Symphony foretell the tragedy of his later life, or does it have a more cerebral purpose? Whatever the composer’s motives for writing it, tragic it certainly is: driven, bitter and sweet by turns, and ending in devastation – utterly compelling.

‘Gergiev’s tempo for the first movement was at the cutting edge of impetuous … the sinew and defiance pinned you to the seat … Gergiev’s neurotic manner was entirely at one with Mahler’s. The playing was mighty and valiant with the LSO brass covering themselves in glory’ The Independent (UK)

Gramophone Magazine