Here's another of the Mahler symphonies that Leonard Bernstein truly made his own. His remake, with the Vienna Philharmonic, is magnificent, but this earlier performance has the freshness of a new discovery. This symphony has become one of the most frequently performed of all of the Mahler symphonies--a far cry from the point just a few decades ago when it was considered the most forbidding of all his works. The subtitle ("Tragic") tells it all: the symphony depicts the heroic struggle against fate, and although the work ends with fate triumphant, the music is anything but depressing. In fact, its defiant, heroic qualities provide an experience that is cathartic rather than bleak, just as true tragedy should. On this extraordinarily intense CD, Bernstein leads the world's great Mahler orchestra in the performance that put the Sixth on the musical map. --David Hurwitz