The journey starts in Switzerland, in the canton of Thurgau, leading from Steckborn and the Bodensee to the Rhine Falls. From Styria, in Austria, comes Hockosterwitz Castle and from Bavaria Weikersheim Castle, the latter intercut with wild life.

Mahler, G.: Symphony No. 4

Classical Music

Each of Gustav Mahler's ten symphonies is a sprawling epic, full of emotional turmoil. According to the composer, the symphony 'must be like the world. It must embrace everything'. The music covers a wide range of genres and emotions, often contradictory, which follow one another at a frantic pace, and it is precisely these extremes that form the building blocks of his symphonic universe. The Minnesota Orchestra and it's then music director, Osmo Vanska, embarked on a complete performance of all ten symphonies in 2016. Eight years later, the recordings of these symphonies, which have won numerous awards and been hailed by critics and audiences alike, have been brought together in this specially priced boxed set. A testament to the exceptional quality of the association between the Finnish conductor and the American orchestra, which has already given us outstanding complete recordings of the symphonies of Beethoven and Sibelius, this complete set joins the ranks of the reference recordings of Mahler's symphonies.

The Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vanska bring us Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony, an extraordinary work by any standards. Scored for extended Wagnerian woodwind and brass sections, posthorn, a large array of percussion, women's chorus, alto soloist and boys' choir, the symphony has a duration of over 100 minutes and is filled with extreme emotion, revealing what the composer wanted to say about his own connection with nature and humanity's place in it: 'My symphony will be something the world has never heard before! The whole of nature will have a voice in it...' he wrote about this mammoth work. The recording was made following a concert performance in November 2022. In this musical communion with nature, we hear the beautiful voices of English mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, the Minnesota Boychoir and women of the Minnesota Chorale. The symphony's finale, a deeply absorbing adagio, might simply be some of the most beautiful music ever written. The last work recorded by the Minnesota Orchestra and it's conductor laureate, Osmo Vanska, Mahler's Third Symphony is a fitting culmination to this complete cycle, which began in 2016.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor "Resurrection"

Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde

This recording of Mahler's Ninth Symphony is an event, because it was made with period instruments of the kind the composer used in Vienna. The Mahler Academy Orchestra set itself the task of reconstructing this instrumentarium and researching how musicians of the time played it: 'We were struck during our rehearsals by the incredibly distinctive characterisation of the woodwinds, the shattering blare of the brass, the perfect balance between the instruments, and the pure and warm sound of the strings... They took Mahler's brilliant orchestration to yet another level', says Philipp Von Steinaecker, artistic director of this ambitious 'Originalklang' (original sound) project and conductor of this orchestra, which brings some fifty young musicians into contact with the finest instrumentalists from the world's leading formations (Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Wiener Symphoniker etc.). Together they made this historic recording in Dobbiaco-Toblach in Italy, where Mahler composed his monumental symphony in 1909, two years before his death.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Alma Mahler-Werfel was born in Vienna 1879, the daughter of a soprano and a landscape painter. Her musical talent was soon recognized and she had lessons with a.o. Zemlinsky. In 1922 she married Gustav Mahler, who explicitly forbid her to continue her composing. Later however, seeing her withering, Mahler allowed her to publish a song cycle in 1910. Alma Mahler was a highly intelligent and cultured woman, surrounded by great artists like Klimt, Zemlinsky, Gropius and Werfel. Her salon in Vienna was the centre of high cultural life. After the war she settled in New York, where she became an iconic figure in the music scene till her death in 1964. Her songs reflect the Zeitgeist of composition: dramatic, brooding, the darkness occasionally lifted by visions of serenity and peace. These are beautiful performances by Catharina Kroeger and Monica Lonero, champions of neglected romantic music. As a bonus they perform a soprano-actress based work called “Penelope” by contemporary composer Patrizia Montanaro.