In setting out to record the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler with the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker, Maestro Adam Fischer hoped to create something special with the ensemble. He hoped that conductor and musicians would mutually inspire one another, not creating Fischer’s Mahler, but rather “our” Mahler. Fischer writes of this process: “Whenever I conduct Mahler, I attempt to find a way to formulate each symphony’s world and its emotional content in a way that I can apprehend. Out of the music, I spin stories for myself… It is the result of a long process, in the course of which I ensure that the scores become my innermost conviction. In my view, this is the conductor’s task. It is exactly the opposite of “work-to-rule.”

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REVIEWS:

The Düsseldorf Symphony plays with skill and precision, keeping together without any signs of fatigue and playing with the commitment and passionate intensity of the world’s great Mahler orchestras.

– All Music Guide

Adam Fischer leads a completely convincing interpretation of the symphony. The truculent first movement flows with unusual coherence; the two Nachtmusiks are perfectly paced, the creepy scherzo has a nicely slithery transparency of texture, and the finale rises to an aptly raucous final climax.

– ClassicsToday.com