Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra - Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (2002)

Posted By: tirexiss

Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra - Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (2002)
EAC | FLAC (tracks+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 03:18:34 | 858 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Telarc Surround | Catalog: 3SACD-60586

The Classical Hall of Fame contains recordings that we critics have judged to be worthy of perpetual enshrinement, and thus it would seem an odd place to air one’s purely personal preferences. That being said, however, it is also true that we first receive sensory experience, and it is through this personal portal that we then extrapolate and objectify, so I begin this induction with some personal observations.

The Mahler Sixth was the symphony which convinced me that this was a composer who spoke to me personally—the relationship was cemented with the Ninth, but it was through the Sixth that contact was made. As a non-musician (in the classical sense, anyway), my relationship with this music began with the CBS LPs conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Later recordings by Rafael Kubelík, Georg Solti, and Herbert von Karajan further deepened my love of the piece. When Simon Rattle’s EMI recording was issued—I hadn’t yet heard the Barbirolli or Mitropoulos recordings—I had the opportunity to explore the vexed issue of the inner movements, a controversy which continues to this day, claims of an “authorized version” notwithstanding.

Benjamin Zander recorded the Sixth with his wonderful Boston Philharmonic, a recording that was praised by the cognoscenti but was hampered by limited availability and has now been deleted (though one can obtain it at Boston Philharmonic concerts). With the release of this recording (and its mates in the vital Telarc series), however, even mainstream media finally awoke to the power of Zander’s deep understanding of Mahler. To make the recording even more appealing, the package includes a full-length discussion disc, containing Zander’s insights in his inimitable style. In addition, this recording contains not one but three performances: with the availability on disc 2 of both versions of the finale—the original version, with three hammer strokes and attendant orchestration, and the revised version—the listener can program the original version with Scherzo-Andante and three hammer strokes, the revised version of Andante-Scherzo and two hammer strokes, or that of the Critical Edition. All of this at a single-SACD price too.

This set might qualify, then, as a merely intriguing package—something like Gilbert Kaplan’s Mahler Second. What elevates this performance into the rarified ranks of the truly exceptional are the insight and commitment to be heard throughout the symphony. In the first movement, Zander has modified his tempo from the BPO version: now we hear a more deliberately paced march, which is grimly implacable but just as menacing—Zander has transcended the simplistic concept of energico as pure speed. “Alma” is imbued with a joyous rush unmatched in any other performance. The “music from far away” in the first movement reaches us from Mahler’s beloved mountains, as does the entire Andante, which has seldom sounded this passionate. Either of the finales will elicit an appreciation for Mahler’s unique ability to combine late-Romanticism with early-Expressionism; more important, Zander communicates the sense of utter despair in the face of overwhelming odds. This is perhaps the most depressing music ever composed, and yet, one comes away exhilarated—that is the definition of great art, and it is the feeling I get from this performance.

Telarc’s SACD production sets this performance apart from many other very good ones—the Eschenbach/Philadelphia on Ondine and Tilson Thomas/San Francisco come to mind. The astoundingly detailed recorded sound gives us all of Mahler’s superb orchestration—the hammer strokes have never sounded quite this good before—but it is the Philharmonia that produces them and Zander’s genius that makes those details available to the engineers. Not since Bernstein has Mahler had such a powerful advocate, and this is his finest performance to date. – Christopher Abbot


Track List:

CD 1:
1. I. Allegro energico, ma non troppo: Heftig aber markig 25:27
2. II. Scherzo. Wuchtig 12:29
3. III. Andante Moderato 16:23

Exact Audio Copy V1.2 from 12. August 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 18. December 2018, 12:50

Philharmonia Orchestra; Benjamin Zander, conductor / Mahler: Symphony No. 6 - CD1

Used drive : hp DVD-RAM GH80N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -e -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 25:32.07 | 0 | 114906
2 | 25:32.07 | 12:34.23 | 114907 | 171479
3 | 38:06.30 | 16:20.70 | 171480 | 245049


Track 1

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD1\01 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- I. Allegro energico, ma non troppo.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 78.2 %
Extraction speed 2.6 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 11DEEC87
Copy CRC 11DEEC87
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [68408FCE] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD1\02 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- II. Scherzo- Wuchtig.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:04.40

Peak level 74.4 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 47211710
Copy CRC 47211710
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [218EEA56] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD1\03 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- III. Andante moderato.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:04.70

Peak level 68.3 %
Extraction speed 3.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 39B2BBFF
Copy CRC 39B2BBFF
Accurately ripped (confidence 5) [E33EB904] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: OgVgrY16E4sv5sl0.nRCGRXv4zQ-] found
Submit result: OgVgrY16E4sv5sl0.nRCGRXv4zQ- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (21/48) Accurately ripped, or (26/48) differs in 84 samples @00:00:27-00:00:28
2 | (48/48) Accurately ripped
3 | (21/48) Accurately ripped, or (26/48) differs in 34 samples @16:19:05-16:19:09,16:19:15,16:19:22-16:19:57,16:19:64-16:19:70,16:20:04,16:20:14,16:20:21,16:20:29-16:20:35
If you are sure that your rip contains errors, you can use CUETools to repair it.


==== Log checksum 0CFBBAC98A32D479AB68186890E9320CF670E981DC2C91BB08C04FF3590A5088 ====

CD 2:
1. IV. Finale: Allegro moderato (original version) 31:59
2. IV. Finale: allegro moderato (revised version) 31:58

Exact Audio Copy V1.2 from 12. August 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 18. December 2018, 14:06

Philharmonia Orchestra; Benjamin Zander, conductor / Mahler: Symphony No. 6 - CD2

Used drive : hp DVD-RAM GH80N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -e -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 32:30.27 | 0 | 146276
2 | 32:30.27 | 31:56.40 | 146277 | 290016


Track 1

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD2\01 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- IV. Finale- Allegro moderato (original version).wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 99.9 %
Extraction speed 2.7 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 60FE14D0
Copy CRC 60FE14D0
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [DD4F1EB6] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD2\02 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- IV. Finale- Allegro moderato (revised version).wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:43.66

Peak level 96.0 %
Extraction speed 3.9 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC D1CDE249
Copy CRC D1CDE249
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [D375C9AD] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: KhwMVrbyrYTR2aZqcr8REBdS_OY-] found
Submit result: KhwMVrbyrYTR2aZqcr8REBdS_OY- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (21/50) Accurately ripped, or (26/50) differs in 70 samples @00:00:27-00:00:28
2 | (20/50) Accurately ripped, or (26/50) differs in 61 samples @31:54:53-31:55:08,31:55:14-31:55:19,31:55:27-31:55:57,31:55:66-31:55:67,31:56:14
If you are sure that your rip contains errors, you can use CUETools to repair it.


==== Log checksum C9A626AF8869ACE668DF47A030059A1375A27C6EDCC838B3236389308AD6FB2F ====

CD 3:
1. Benjamin Zander Discusses Mahler's Sixth Symphony 79:43

Exact Audio Copy V1.2 from 12. August 2016

EAC extraction logfile from 18. December 2018, 16:08

Benjamin Zander / Malher: Symphony No. 6 - CD3

Used drive : hp DVD-RAM GH80N Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 667
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -e -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %source% -o %dest%


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 23:52.10 | 0 | 107409
2 | 23:52.10 | 11:23.35 | 107410 | 158669
3 | 35:15.45 | 9:20.45 | 158670 | 200714
4 | 44:36.15 | 12:28.25 | 200715 | 256839
5 | 57:04.40 | 22:38.30 | 256840 | 358719


Track 1

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD3\01 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- First Movement.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 2.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 2A30DFE4
Copy CRC 2A30DFE4
Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [4784946B] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD3\02 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- Second Movement.wav

Peak level 68.6 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 7A2C1C7D
Copy CRC 7A2C1C7D
Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [AF6E8424] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD3\03 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- Third Movement.wav

Peak level 69.2 %
Extraction speed 3.4 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 327EE120
Copy CRC 327EE120
Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [0274113C] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD3\04 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- Fourth Movement.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 3.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC FCD05B3A
Copy CRC FCD05B3A
Accurately ripped (confidence 12) [C5A2DE96] (AR v2)
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename C:\Sounds\Mahler Symphony No 6 - Benjamin Zander, Philharmonia Orchestra (2002) [FLAC]\CD3\05 - Symphony No. 6 in A minor ''Tragic''- The revisions.wav

Peak level 100.0 %
Extraction speed 4.3 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC A40C0769
Copy CRC A40C0769
Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [1CD977DA] (AR v2)
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.6

[CTDB TOCID: 0sx_V6O3ro68iO9x.jJAv6UN9Yc-] found
Submit result: 0sx_V6O3ro68iO9x.jJAv6UN9Yc- has been confirmed
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (35/35) Accurately ripped
2 | (35/35) Accurately ripped
3 | (35/35) Accurately ripped
4 | (33/35) Accurately ripped
5 | (34/35) Accurately ripped


==== Log checksum B200E7C3693F64E11CA5F3736B4EC790D61A97B060F9FC32A1E7AB0FC82BB169 ====

Performers:
Philharmonia Orchestra
Conductor – Benjamin Zander

Thanks to the Original ripper (Farscape2008)!

Download: