Also available on Blu-ray

This C Major DVD release of Gustav Mahler’s Symphonies 3 and 4 continues the complete Mahler audiovisual cycle project the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Paavo Järvi initiated with the recent release of Mahler’s first two symphonies.Soprano soloists Waltraud Meier and Genia Kühmeier feature in these performances of the Third and Fourth Symphonies respectively.“Genia Kühmeier sang with a transcendent and immaculate tone.“ (FAZ)“Great orchestra, outstanding conductor.“ (Bild Zeitung)

Running Time Total: 215 Minutes
Symphonies: 195 Minutes
Introductions to Symphonies Nos 3 + 4 by P. Järvi : 20 Minutes
Picture 16:9, HD
Sound: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo
Symphonies: Original language: German
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Introductions to the Symphonies: English, German, Korean, Japanese
Booklet: English, German, French

This C Major 2DVD/1Blu-ray disc release of Gustav Mahler’s Symphonies №s 1 + 2 initiates a complete Mahler cycle project with Paavo Järvi conducting the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra well-regarded for their Mahler recordings, as witnessed by its highly successful cycle on CD under conductor Eliahu Inbal some thirty years ago. + As an enlivening bonus feature, each symphony in this new cycle will feature an explanatory, in-depth introduction by Mr. Järvi. + “Mahler’s 2nd was given a brilliant interpretation by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony.” (Die Zeit)

Classical Music

This Yarlung release features Gerard Schwarz conducting Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Maestro Schwarz’s celebrated tenures as music director of both the LA Chamber Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony included the making of over 100 recordings, many seeing re-release through Naxos. The Colburn Orchestra is the flagship ensemble of the Colburn Conservatory of Music, one of the nation’s leading conservatories for highly talented college-age students pursuing intensive instrumental performance training. “Without question, among the finest orchestras in the world.” – Gerard Schwarz

This OehmsClassics release of Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony coupled with sole Mahler-completed movement (Adagio) from the Tenth signals the completion of the Markus Stenz led Mahler cycle with the Gürzenich Orchestra, Köln. Critical acclaim for this cycle has been outstanding, with the Third and Seventh Symphonies in particular being singled out as among the finest recordings currently available. 2013-14 marked Mr. Stenz’s tenth and final season as Principal Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra.

•Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony employs the largest orchestral apparatus he ever used. It is a work of extremes, from the Andante’s main, sweetly cantabile theme to the chordal agglomerations breaking out in triple forte “with raw force” at the centre of the Finale’s development section, to its final, inevitable catastrophic ending. This next-to-last release in the OehmsClassics Mahler SACDcycle presents a live recording from the Cologne Philharmonie made in November 2013.

Classical Music

"The Gustav Mahler symphony cycle project, began in 2007, from conductor Gabriel Feltz and the Stuttgart Philhamonic continues with the release of the First Symphony. Having already conducted this work several times, Mr. Feltz's conception of the work, for recording purposes, is an assured one. Principal conductor of the Dortmond Philharmonic, Mr. Feltz's (b. 1971) resume of appointments, appearances, recordings and awards is impressive."

Classical Music

The highly distinguished conductor Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976) started as an oboist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. During the Second World War, he was chief conductor of the Chemnitz Opera until 1946. He then worked at Weimar for the 1948-9 season, before joining the Dresden Opera and becoming chief conductor. From 1952 to 1954, he was chief conductor of the Bavarian State Opera, which he conducted at Covent Garden in 1953 to great acclaim. Mahler's Symphony No.4 is a new addition to the Kempe discography. The recording, which was discovered in the Music Preserved archive in York, is a real rarity. Similarly, Mendelssohn's Ruy Blas Overture is a new addition to the conductor's discography. It is heard here in a fiery performance captured live from the Royal Festival Hall in 1967 with the LSO. Kempe's account of the Prelude to Act I of Wagner's Parsifal, recorded in 1965, confirms his status as one of the greatest Wagnerian conductors of the 20th century. His Covent Garden performances of Parsifal in 1959 were landmarks for the company.

Mahler: Symphony No. 3 - Wagner: Götterdämmerung & Wesendonc

Hartmut Haenchen was born in Dresden in 1943 and from the moment of his 1971 Carl Maria von Weber Competition victory onward, he has been a force of nature in the classical music world. These Mahler recordings are being released to commemorate Haenchen's seventieth birthday and a rich career conducting orchestras and opera companies worldwide.

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 Hochosterwitz Castle and from Bavaria Weikersheim Castle, the latter intercut with wild life from the Austrian Assling Nature Park. The tour ends amid the strangely shaped mountains of the Dolomites in Southern Tyrol, a region divided between Austria and Italy. In a remarkable way Mahler, in his symphonies and songs, has seemed to reflect the world of today in all it's bewildering variety and has now won an established place in concert repertoire. Distinguished as a conductor, his fame as a composer has grown over the years since his death. The music included here is Mahler's ymphony No. 1, nick-named Titan, not for it's massive power, but after the book by Jean Paul, a strong influence over earlier romantics and over Mahler at this stage in his career. The symphony breathes the spirit of the Austrian countryside, reflected in Mahler's songs.

A paradigmatic example of the Wiener Symphoniker's core repertoire, Mahler's First Symphony in D major was written only four years before the orchestra was founded in 1900. Not surprisingly, Mahler's symphonies and their interpretational challenges were among the main intersts of the orchestra and it's many renowned conductors from the very beginning. Above that Mahler's Symphony No. 1, being the first oeuvre of a Vienna revolutionary, is more sutable for the start of this new Vienna Orchestra label.

This remarkably original work, with its recurring quotations from the composer’s own songs, notably Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) and Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn), is the perfect expression of one of Mahler’s most quoted sayings, “The symphony is a world; it must contain everything”. The opening movement, filled with sounds that Mahler remembered from his childhood, depicts “Nature’s awakening from the long sleep of winter”, and is followed by an exuberant scherzo and trio based on a Ländler. The disturbing slow movement funeral march, based on the children’s song Frère Jacques, is unlike anything that had been heard before, and the symphony concludes with music of thrilling dramatic intensity.

REVIEWS:

In the finale the brass section is given its opportunity to step forward and they really deliver the goods. The trumpets, tuba, braying horns and tam-tam are thrilling in their impact. There is no distracting applause at the end of the symphony, thank goodness, and this allows for a few seconds thought before realising what a cracking performance has just taken place.

–MusicWeb International

This is a thoughtful performance, very reined-in for the most part, though when Alsop finally lets her Baltimore forces off the leash in the closing peroration the effect is so starling that it blows you away. Earlier on, there are moments when you feel she’s held too much back, particularly in the scherzo, which is overly deliberate. But the sense of wonder of the first movement, together with the ironies of the later funeral march, are breathtakingly done, and all that hard to balance counter-point is beautifully clear.

– Guardian (UK)