Vurdering: 5/5

"Editor's choice: Anyone who thrilled (as I did) to Teodor Currentzis's Tchaikovsky Pathétique will find distinct parallels here. The impuls, the imperative, of this Mahler Sixth is extraordinary ... Inner parts pull focus as they have rarely done so before surprising even those of us for whom the piece is frighteningly familiar ... The playing of Currentzis's heavily augmented MusicAeterna is pretty hairraising throughout"

"There are passages here as phenomenal and white-hot as any I've heard in the Sixth Symphony: try the whiplash return to the hurly-burly after the high-pastures idyll at the centre of the first movement, or the build-ups to the first two hammer-blows as well as the welter of their aftermaths ... The real drawback is the glassy patina over the sound"

"Currentzis is not quite the iconoclast he's sometimes made out to be - it's more that he appears able to shoulder the weight of accumulated performing tradition and then, decisively, shrug it off ... If you can imagine a Mahler 6 in which the urgency and raw edge of Roger Norrington rubs up against the red-blooded glitz of Leonard Bernstein, this is it. Currentzis shapes the music in forensic detail, luxuriating in an orchestra full of wind soloists who never seem to need to breathe ... It's a constantly engaging performance that seems to encompass the whole musical world"

"Currentzis gelingt es in der Tat, das Gefahrenpotenzial dieser Partitur ohne Beschönigung herauszuspielen; das Finale etwa lässt in seiner Brutalität regelrecht erschauern. Allerdings wirkt die Musik gerade in diesem Satz eher wie eine wilde Jagd als wie eine Tragödie ... Fazit: ein Einspielung, an die man sich gewöhnen muss - aber vielleicht war ja genau dies die Absicht des Dirigenten"

"Recording of the week: Even after just the first movement, the emotional journey that Currentzis and his orchestra had presented was so draining that I needed a moment to gather myself before continuing ... I think part of the reason for this is the highlighting of every last rhythmic nuance and finer point of articulation that can often pass by unnoticed ... Just as in so many of Currentzis's previous recordings, he makes you think again about a piece you thought you knew really well, and presents it to you with a fresh approach and an invigoratingly novel angle"

"Teodor Currentzis är en av den klassiska musikvärldens hetaste profiler just nu ... Det är utan tvekan en fascinerande resa som Currentzis tar med lyssnaren på i denna den kanske mest uttrycksfulla av Mahlers symfonier. Den inledande marschen spelas magnifikt med rungande, rå kraft - energiskt, hotfullt och rytmiskt. Men att Currentzis och orkestern också kan gestalta en pastoral idyllisk stämning blir tydligt på många andra ställen. Orketerspelet är på en formidabelt hög nivå rakt igenom, med knivskarp precision och ett färgrikt tonmåleri ... Vad man möjligen ibland kan sakna i den här tolkningen är det som jag i brist på bättra ord skulle vilja kalla "mahlerskt tonspråk""