The Royal Philharmonics with Michael Tilson Thomas gave a tour de force performance Thursday evening of Mahler’s Symphony no 6 – after listening to the 2001 recording with the San Francisco Symphony a couple of times, I was surprised to hear it performed with such a clarity and with so many details, so much so that the work suddenly didn’t feel as overwhelmingly dark and tragic anymore.
The performance was preceded by a 35 minute talk by MTT who gave an insightful, moving but also humorous glimpse into the Sixth‘s vast universe. This year’s best concert so far.
(Picture of ticket to the MTT concert, taken on February 2, 2008.)
