Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra / Christoph Eschenbach

The »work ends with catastrophe«, declared one reviewer soon after the premiere of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 on 27 May 1906 in Essen’s Saalbau. Mahler, who conducted the premiere himself, had indeed, with his Sixth, produced a singular work. Maintaining the plaintive sound throughout, Mahler refrains from making the customary shift into the positive even in the closing movement. The symphony ends in tragedy, offering no hope, and Mahler deploys everything at his disposal in this closing section to evoke a dark emotional state. Among these methods are a number of unusual percussion instruments, including a hammer that, according to Mahler’s entry in the score, should make the following sound: »A short, powerful but dull clangourous blow of a non-metallic nature (like the blow of an axe)«. The hammer falls, the blows strike home, fate plays its hand and catastrophe is unleashed. Christoph Eschenbach recorded the hugely challenging work with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2005 – in this concert, his partners are the young, highly motivated musicians of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra.