Mahler 6 with Dudamel by Mahler, Nuo (2024/2024), Dirigentas Gustavo Dudamel, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, United States

The “Tragic” Symphony thrusts the audience into the composer’s inner world, and Mahler specialist Gustavo Dudamel has been celebrated for expertly shaping the soaring emotional peaks and valleys that run throughout the Sixth. Percussion in many ways frames the emotional extremes Mahler sought to capture, first with cowbells evoking a nostalgic image of country life and then with the famous hammer blows. Each gut-shaking strike represents a fated doom that drowns out happy memory. But while it is a dark path, sharing in this very human emotional journey is ultimately life-affirming.