Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester: Bruckner Symphony No. 3

Mahler Symphony No. 3

With a massive orchestra, boys' choir, girls' choir, and alto solo, Mahler paints vivid pictures in his Third Symphony. He himself described it as "something like never before: a symphony that depicts creation, from the insensitive stiff, purely elementary existence to the delicate creation of the human heart, which reaches beyond itself. It goes far, far beyond natural size, and in comparison, everything human shrinks."In many ways, Gustav Mahler was a boundary-breaker with his "maximalist" symphonies. He both completed the symphonic tradition in the footsteps of Beethoven and set the course for the future. The dreamlike alto voice and the bright choirs in the fourth movement create a sense of fragility and tenderness. Here, the distinguished Scottish alto Beth Taylor participates. The symphony culminates in an emotional chorale that grows and sweeps everything along in a hymn to love.Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the forces. He conducted Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the orchestra in the autumn of 2023. "The Third is definitely a challenge for any orchestra and conductor, but the music is also very direct: Mahler tells a story."Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

Mahler Symphony No. 3

With a massive orchestra, boys' choir, girls' choir, and alto solo, Mahler paints vivid pictures in his Third Symphony. He himself described it as "something like never before: a symphony that depicts creation, from the insensitive stiff, purely elementary existence to the delicate creation of the human heart, which reaches beyond itself. It goes far, far beyond natural size, and in comparison, everything human shrinks."In many ways, Gustav Mahler was a boundary-breaker with his "maximalist" symphonies. He both completed the symphonic tradition in the footsteps of Beethoven and set the course for the future. The dreamlike alto voice and the bright choirs in the fourth movement create a sense of fragility and tenderness. Here, the distinguished Scottish alto Beth Taylor participates. The symphony culminates in an emotional chorale that grows and sweeps everything along in a hymn to love.Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra's chief conductor Ryan Bancroft leads the forces. He conducted Mahler's Fifth Symphony with the orchestra in the autumn of 2023. "The Third is definitely a challenge for any orchestra and conductor, but the music is also very direct: Mahler tells a story."Read more about chief conductor Ryan Bancroft

Mahler: Symphony No. 3

Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony is more than just music. It is an event. »For me, symphony means building a world with all the means of available technology,« said Mahler, and with his Third, he has moulded this aspiration into monumental music that breaks all boundaries. It tells a late Romantic story of creation: nature awakens from its icy torpor, flowers sway in the wind, animals dance in the forest, brass bands herald the arrival of summer, angels sing »Bim Bam«. But death lurks everywhere. At the end, in one of the most poignant finales in music history, the human soul soars to heavenly heights.

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester

Under conductor Ingo Metzmacher, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester combines microtonal orchestral music with cosmic late Romanticism – and, in Anton Bruckner, Richard Wagner and Luigi Nono, three of the most headstrong characters in musical history.

Mahler Festival: Fabio Luisi and NHK Symphony Orchestra - Mahler's Symphony No. 3

Born in Italy, Fabio Luisi is currently chief conductor on two continents. In Texas, he is the successor to Jaap van Zweden at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. And in Tokyo, he leads the NHK Symphony Orchestra, which today performs Mahler's Third Symphony, one of Mahler's signature orchestral works with a major role for voice. The NHK Symphony Orchestra is joined by both the women of the National Radio Choir and the National Children's Choir.Initially, Mahler gave his Third Symphony a programme: a summer morning dream. In the six movements, he featured animals, flowers and angels. He later removed all these titles, but the Third remains a declaration of love to nature and the universe. Including Bavarian folk music and sleigh bells, and children stepping into the roles of angels.

Mahler's Symphony No. 5 & Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3

What did Mahler's Fifth Symphony sound like at the beginning of the last century? The Mahler Academy Orchestra, attached to the Gustav Mahler Academy in Bolzano, sheds new light on performance practice in Mahler's time with the Originalklang-Project. The orchestra consists partly of academics and partly of professional musicians, drawn from the best European orchestras. In Toblach, where Mahler composed his last symphonic works, they mastered playing on original Viennese instruments from around 1900 under the direction of Philipp von Steinaecker. The strings use gut strings; the woodwind and brass play on instruments Mahler acquired during his time as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic.Norwegian star pianist Leif Ove Andsnes will solo in Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto. Fun fact: Mahler conducted this work at the New York Philharmonic in 1910 with Rachmaninoff himself as soloist. The Mahler Academy Orchestra's concert is a prelude to the Mahler Festival in May 2025.Originalklang with original text: first performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony in the new critical edition by Breitkopf & Härtel.

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester / Ingo Metzmacher

»You sometimes need to go against the grain a bit in the music business,« says conductor Ingo Metzmacher. With Beethoven, Shostakovich and Schönberg, he includes three composers on the programme who did just that and wrote music that is still moving and inspiring today. And perhaps this is also an important message to the highly talented youngsters in the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, who bring the three revolutionaries to the stage in a young, fresh and certainly a little rebellious way.

Mahler Symphony No.6 with Vladimir Jurowski

Mahler Symphony No.6 with Vladimir Jurowski

Mahler Festival: Fabio Luisi and NHK Symphony Orchestra - Mahler's Symphony No. 4

Born in Italy, Fabio Luisi is currently chief conductor on two continents. In Texas, he succeeded Jaap van Zweden at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. And in Tokyo, he leads the NHK Symphony Orchestra, with which he will give two concerts during the Mahler Festival. Yesterday the Third Symphony was performed, today it is the Fourth Symphony's turn. Luisi's interpretation was called 'enchanting' by Dallas Morning News. In the fourth movement, soprano Ying Fang sings of the idyll of the afterlife.While walking through Austria, writing book in hand, Mahler got his Fourth Symphony in his mind. Consequently, it sounds remarkably scenic, light and lyrical. The Fourth Symphony initially met with resistance and incomprehension, and was slammed by the press. Later, however, the work grew to become perhaps Mahler's best-loved symphony. In this respect, Bruno Walter, Mahler's colleague and friend, was proved right when, after the first performance in Vienna, he lashed out at the boomer press that 'Mahler and his immortal work will be alive long after you are dead and buried'.