Valery Gergiev"s eagerly anticipated debut recording for LSO Live is also his first recording of Mahler"s music and the first in a complete cycle of the composer"s symphonies. Recorded in November 2007 as part of his sensational concert series of the symphonies, Gergiev delivers an intensely emotional account of this pivotal work. Does Mahler"s Sixth Symphony foretell the tragedy of his later life, or does it have a more cerebral purpose? Whatever the composer"s motives for writing it, tragic it certainly is: driven, bitter and sweet by turns, and ending in devastation - utterly compelling.