Eduard Flipse conducts Mahler's 6th Symphony from the Holland Festival 1955

Interesting records turn up at unusual times and in unusual places. Like the record above, in somebody's garage, that I happened to spot, while at his house for something else. "Would you be interested in getting rid of that box of records?" "Sure, ah....how about 10 bucks?" And a mint copy of a 6th and 8th symphony of Mahler conducted by the all but unknown Eduard Flipse emerge with a layer of dust on top but otherwise in splendid shape.

Eduard Flipse: Dutch conductor, many years chief conductor of the Rotterdam PO and organizer of the Holland Festival. Like Mengelberg, an advocate for Mahler before the craze all got into high gear in the mid 60's. Gosh, I never realized that Mahler's time did definitely come by way of the low countries!

If you like your Mahler with a heavy dose of angst and neurosis, this is not for you. Flipse's approach is somewhat businesslike and his reading is modeled on the notes in the score, no more, no less. He does not read into the music what he thinks Mahler meant or does he try to interpret Mahler's emotional state in the general line of the music. Rather, Flipse lets the music speak on its own terms and he is well served by the alert and responsible playing by the Netherlands "second" orchestra. Its quite satisfying and serves as a nice counterweight to the emotionally draining versions by Bernstein and Mitropoulos. In a sense, Flipse is like Szell but I think he is overall more in tune with Mahler's unique world. I will point out that Flipse does place the Scherzo as the third movement and for me, that makes the most sense.

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