For more than 50 years, Sir Simon Rattle, Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, has devoted himself intensely to the deeply personal, emotional, and autobiographical music of Gustav Mahler.
Mahler conceived his symphonies as all-encompassing universes that reflect the full spectrum of human life. He famously said: “To me, a symphony means using every available technical resource to build a world.”
To guide both orchestra and audience through these profoundly moving musical worlds, no conductor is better equipped than Sir Simon Rattle.
Mahler's “Resurrection Symphony” explores one of humanity's most profound existential questions: the meaning of life. From the opening movement, originally titled “Totenfeier” (“Funeral Rite”), to the finale, in which the soloists and chorus proclaim “Aufersteh’n wirst du!“ (“You shall rise again!”), Mahler grapples with joy and suffering. The Second Symphony’s dramatic contrasts, emotional intensity, richly coloured orchestration, and crowning choral finale have made it one of his most beloved works.
Now released on CD by BR-Klassik, the Munich performance of the symphony from March 2026 brings together a stellar cast in a superb interpretation of one of the defining masterpieces of the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire.
Gustav Mahler wanted his Second Symphony to exceed any known format - and he also wanted it to tackle the key questions of existence: "Why have you lived? Why have you suffered? Is everything just one enormous, terrible joke? We have to solve these questions in some way if we want to carry on living," said the composer. Similar questions preoccupied him throughout his life, and with a special intensity during his time as an opera conductor in Hamburg. The Second Symphony, also referred to as the "Resurrection Symphony", is a complete expression of Mahler’s existential struggle; both its form and its overpowering sound make this utterly clear.
The symphony took several years to compose – it was written between 1888 and 1894. In September 1888, the first movement – which at this point still bore the title "Totenfeier” (“Funeral Rite”) – was already complete. The second and third movements were not written until 1893 and Mahler only completed the entire work in 1894. Like most of Mahler’s symphonies, the work follows a "Per aspera ad astra" pattern (“through difficulties to the stars”). Starting with a funeral march in the main theme of the opening movement - the passing of a life full of vigour, pain, blows of fate, and only a few brief and beautiful moments - the symphony concludes with a triumphant resurrection movement.
The premiere of the complete symphony took place on December 13, 1895 in Berlin under Mahler's direction; previously (on March 4 of that year) he had already performed the first three movements. The premiere of the Second Symphony thus took place after that of the Third. The reactions were initially subdued, but today the work ranks as one of the most popular of Mahler’s symphonies. - The Munich concert event of May 2011 is now being released on BR-KLASSIK as a CD – it is a star-studded, outstanding interpretation of one of the most important compositions in the Late Romantic symphonic repertoire.
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz's six symphonic poems feature gobs of Straussian sonority in loosely organized forms, and while Antoni Wit's performances are actually a touch slower than the competition on Chandos, the playing of the Warsaw Philharmonic is so much more atmospheric, richly textured, and knowing than that of the BBC Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda that the music is transformed. In classic Romantic fashion, the programmatic basis of all of this music is darkly tragic (for example, Stanislaw and Anna have an incestuous love affair and the story naturally ends in death). Wit clearly understands the idiom and milks the music for all it's worth. Thus, the celebratory sequences in Episode at a Masquerade have an extra degree of feverish brilliance, and the repetitious opening of Lithuanian Rhapsody is spellbinding rather than merely monotonous--in short, these forces make the best possible case for Karlowicz.
This is a young man's music--he was only in his early 30s when he died in 1909--full of self-indulgent excess; but it's also brimming with promising talent. This sumptuously engineered production reminds us of just what a loss his early death represented for 20th-century Polish music, while allowing us to savor his all too meager legacy.
