Ivan Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchestra - Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (2005)

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Ivan Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchestra - Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (2005)

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This is the first disc to be made in Budapest’s new National Concert Hall where the orchestra recently staged a Mahler festival in celebration of the composer’s local connections. Notwithstanding the change of venue and the extra forces deployed, it is very much a typical Budapest Festival production, lithe and alert, without necessarily sounding what older hands may think of as Mahlerian.
Fischer presses some fashionable buttons: his violins are seated antiphonally, and in the distinctive timbre of his winds many will relish an old-time specificity of colour and character. He places the Andante before the Scherzo and follows Mahler’s last thoughts by culling the finale’s third hammer blow. The first movement is brisk, with much of the articulate verve you’d expect from this source, the coda having particular aplomb. That said, transitions are not very intense and the ‘Alma’ theme is subjected to some mannered rubato lacking in Bernstein’s conviction. Fischer’s slow movement is cool, even inconsequential after Karajan’s.
The Scherzo works best, save for an untoward bit of nuancing at 0’55” – there’s nothing in this reading to compare with the agogic distortions Fischer inflicts upon the opening fanfares of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth (Channel Classics, 1/05) – and the trios are beautifully realised. While the excitable finale lacks the weight and import of big-name rivals, the transparent sound allows even idiosyncratic balances to register with naturalness. Sound engineer Jared Sacks permits none of the wooziness affecting some SACDs. The well-packaged disc includes commentary from the conductor.