The Man Mesmerising London ; Love It or Hate It, the Lso's Mahler Cycle Is the Latest Hot Ticket. That, Says Its Hair-Raising Conductor Valery Gergiev, Is Because 'Together We Are Saying Something New'

Summary

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HAIR-raising, visionary and impetuous, the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev whips you into a fresh understanding of any music he tackles, whether you like it or not. His Mahler Symphonies cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican which he is now halfway through has startled, mesmerised and maddened. Some can't stand it. Others have started out sceptical, calling him a Mahler novice all dark Russian angst, no airy Viennese irony then seen the light and turned evangelical.

If you've missed the fireworks in the concert hall, you can now listen at home for a mere Pounds 8. Next Monday LSO Live, the orchestra's top-selling budget label, releases its inaugural CD with their new principal conductor.

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The Man Mesmerising London ; Love It or Hate It, the Lso's Mahler Cycle Is the Latest Hot Ticket. That, Says Its Hair-Raising Conductor Valery Gergiev, Is Because 'Together We Are Saying Something New'

It's a white-knuckled account of Mahler's tragic Sixth Symphony, famous for its bizarre, shunting cowbells and shattering hammer blows.

In Gergiev's excitable, baton-less hands, the pace is fast, the aural colours glint and flash, the orchestra sounds edgy, taut and exhilarating.

The complete Gergiev/Mahler cycle, which culminates in the mammoth Symphony of a Thou...

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