Mahler: Symphony No. 6- The Cleveland Orchestra; George Szell

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Mahler: Symphony No. 6- The Cleveland Orchestra; George Szell

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Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 in A minor “Tragic” - The Cleveland Orchestra; George Szell, conductor
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 335 Mb | FLAC+LOG+M3U+Cue | Pretty good scans | 3 RS links
Publisher: Sony Classical

There is, I understand, a wonderful cache of recordings made of Szell's live performances in Severance Hall, Cleveland, and if this is indeed a sample of the recording quality produced by radio engineers, then I am more eager than ever that they should reach a wide public. I have long counted Szell's version of Mahler's Fourth as one of the very greatest of all Mahler performances on record (CBS Classics 61056, 4/69), but till now that has been an isolated example of his Mahler interpretations. I cannot claim that this account of the Sixth has quite the same intensity, but remembering as I do his dedicated performance with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall of this very work on what I believe was his last visit here, I am delighted to have such a souvenir as this.
The precision of ensemble, the absence even of minor flaws in the playing is almost unbelievable. This if anything even surpasses the standards of Toscanini in his live recordings, and easily matches the standards of most orchestras in the recording studio. Nonetheless at the very start there is a minor imprecision that Szell would certainly have corrected in recording, and curiously too the balance seems to take a minute or so to get quite right with the violins at first a little reticent but coming forward in full bloom very quickly. In the many flurrying semiquaver passages their unanimity and definition is almost past belief for a live performance.
But what of the interpretation? The really distinctive performance, the one that sets this version apart from direct rivals is of the delicate third movement, where Szell's idea of Andante moderato leans to the second word rather than the first. His tempo is unusually fast, but such is the refined simplicity of style, the mood is one of almost Schubertian relaxation with no sense of the music being hurried. Rather one finds that afterwards other versions, even Haitink's which is by far the closest to Szell's in its overall approach, sound comparatively heavy-handed. Incidentally it is a delight to find that contrary to many of the Cleveland records of a few years ago this live performance demonstrates very clearly how genuinely softly the orchestra could play. It is also welcome to have a natural balance and no spotlighting for such passages as violin solos. On recording, however, it is obvious enough that this has not quite the range or fullness in coping with big climaxes that one would expect of something engineered conventionally for the gramophone. The big climax of that third movement for example does not have the suddenness of impact one ideally wants, and after such a performance as Solti's with the Chicago orchestra a passage like the opening of the finale seems a little tame in terms of sound. But the most important moment of impact, the sudden fortissimo on the very last page after the creeping passage for trombones and tuba is as shattering in its suddenness as in any other version.
In the first two movements the tension is not quite so keen as in the last two, but interpretatively they too are characteristic and distinctive. In terms of metronome marking Szell's tempo for the first movement is very close indeed to that of Haitink, Solti and Bernstein, but in taking a basic speed just a fraction slower than the others Szell allows himself to keep a steady pulse through the movement and so to unify it the more tightly. The most striking illustration comes at fig. 8 where after the rallentando Mahler asks for subito a tempo but then also marks the big melody following Schurungvoll. The others adopt a more expressive style and slow down, while Sze11 keeps much steadier, presumably interpreting that last instruction as meaning full of spirit rather than full of oscillation. The second movement finds Szell adopting an unusually slow and heavy tempo. I am not sure I should always want to hear the movement like this: it becomes even more nagging and dark than usual, but the power is undeniable.
Just how one relates this Szell version of No. 6 to the others in the catalogue is not easy to define. Some Mahlerians will certainly opt for it on purely interpretative grounds, but there is no denying that the sound on the Solti and Haitink versions is more vivid and the performances match each recording, Solti slightly larger than life, Haitink cleanly satisfying and intense.
E.G. Gramophone, October 1973