Mahler 8 Chailly

Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra complete their cycle of Schumann s four symphonies, presented together in a specially-priced 2-CD set. The Gewandhaus Orchestra under it s Music Director Riccardo Chailly brings generations of authentic romantic style to performances of all four Schumann symphonies. These symphonies, recorded in the wonderful acoustic of the Gewandhaus itself, include the revisions made by the composer Gustav Mahler a lifelong supporter of Schumann and his symphonic writings.

As Riccardo Chailly points out, “The Fifth begins with a dark, gloomy, and tragic tone, but then is enlivened in the Scherzo and Adagietto, and eventually ends with a more positive character in the Finale – perhaps for the last time in Mahler’s life. The Adagietto is a revelation, a spiritual oasis. It is not an expression of pain, but rather Mahler’s declaration of love to Alma – a song without words.“ With the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chailly gives the piece an unsurpassed intensity of sound and emotional expression. He achieves a compelling arc of tension in which the symphony’s unique fascination unfolds. The Wiener Zeitung characterized Chailly’s interpretation as „impressive with powerful and unreserved intensity.“

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 is an incomprehensible wonder of music history, rigorously peculiar, disturbingly new, and timelessly modern. “Wie ein Naturlaut” (Like a sound of nature) is indicated above the first notes of the symphony. It is both the prelude and the key to his symphonic cosmos as a whole. Mahler captures this music of the world, transforms it into a symphony in the old, comprehensive sense of the word and uses it to create his masterpiece of harmony. Composed over the course of just a few months at the beginning of 1888 in Leipzig, this symphony is a true musical awakening. Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig bring Mahler’s sounds of nature to life in a riveting performance.

"The audience knows that the performance of a Mahler symphony is not only a musical experience, but is also emotionally effective" (R. Chailly). This counts especially for Mahler's enigmatic sixth symphony, an emotionally stirring challenge for both performers and listeners, whilst also being one of the most impressive works in musical history. Chailly's interpretation with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is "intensely great" (Die Presse). "Chailly uncompromisingly considers this sixth symphony through the lens of modernity; looking forward, not retrospectively staying in 'late romantic'. In this celebrated orchestra, all sections splendidly come together and fulfil an 'open' sound, conserving whilst respecting its original beauty." (Salzburger Nachrichten)

How good to see Riccardo Chailly so radiant at the end of this great event.It's an exhilaration he earns through sheer hard work as well as injecting the adrenalin at most of the right moments.(Majority) of the singers are excellent,from two very different but keenly-projected lyric-dramatic sopranos,Erika Sunnegardh and Ricardo Merbeth,to Georg Zeppenfeld,whose bass is rock solid and expressive across a huge range.Chailly holds attention between movements and makes you realise how many soloists within the orchestra have to sing,too.His Leader,the superb Sebastian Breuninger,assists him between blazes in the most striking of chamber-musical moments.Breuninger shares the front desk of viloins in Claudio Abbado's Lucerne festival Orchestra,but this one Mahler symphony Abbado's forces have yet to tackle,and Chailly's rendering leads the field on DVD. (BBC Music Magzine)

Gustav Mahlers 8th Symphony breaks the boundaries of the symphonic form in a world-embracing gesture. Riccardo Chailly is one of the staunchest performers of this work, and therefore it seemed appropriate in many ways that he chose this work for his inaugural concert as Claudio Abbados successor and new music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. The artistic statement was combined with a deeply personal conviction: it should be a 'tribute to Claudio', the highly esteemed friend and colleague to whom Chailly, as he emphasizes, owes very much. On 12 August 2016, Claudio Abbados unfinished Mahler cycle with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra was completed in a breathtaking performance of the Mahler 8th, simultaneously heralding in a new era in Lucerne.

It seems that Gary Bertini, like Gustav Mahler, is destined to be better remembered after his death than he was known during his life. When he passed away in 2005, he was little known outside Israel, Japan and continental Europe and nowhere near as widely recognised as the glamour conductors who appear on the пїЅmajorпїЅ labels. His recordings were few and hard to find. A year after his passing, Capriccio has launched a Gary Bertini Edition (see, for example, review) featuring live recordings drawn from the archives of the KпїЅlner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester, and EMI has re-released his Mahler cycle.

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and their Music Director Riccardo Chailly have already acquired legendary status – glorious reviews and many awards for their recordings testifying to their continuing success. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival, to mark the centenary of Mahler’s death, they performed his monumental Second Symphony in the Gewandhaus – together with two marvellous soloists and choral forces quite beyond compare. About the final movement the composer said: “The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don’t know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.”

Theodor W. Adorno regarded Mahlers Symphony No. 9 as the first work of modern music. Adornos teacher, Alban Berg, saw in it the expression of a tremendous love for this world, a longing to live in peace and to savor Nature to its depths before the arrival of Death. For it will inevitably come. This live recording of the composers last completed symphony is part of an ongoing Leipzig cycle of Mahlers symphonies. It confirms once more the Gewandhaus Orchestras reputation as an exemplary ensemble for the performance of Mahlers music. The highest level of performance culture combined with a sharply contoured, transparent, polished, and detailed manner of playing, plus infectious verve and an unmistakable sound characterized by a darkly golden color these are qualities responsible for the Gewandhaus Orchestras international reputation. Since the time of Bruno Walter, the orchestra has developed over the years a deep understanding of the works of Gustav Mahler, which in their collaboration with Riccardo Chailly has been continued.

During the four years that separated Alexander Zemlinsky's Symphony in D minor and the premiere of the Symphony in B flat major (his first two efforts in the genre, aside from an incomplete work penned during his student years), the young composer had caught the eye and the fancy of the Viennese musical world. "The work's fresh, original ideas and genuinely exalted, youthful fire made a great impression on the audience and unleashed an intense salvo of applause," wrote one critic in response to the 1896 premiere of Zemlinsky's Waldegespräch (for soprano and chamber ensemble). These years also saw Zemlinsky winning two prestigious awards, the Luitpold Prize and the Beethoven Prize. His compositional skills had been refined during the mid 1890s as well. The Suite for Orchestra from 1895, for example, gave Zemlinsky an opportunity to create more adventurous orchestral colors than had been found in the admirable but conservative D minor Symphony. Thus, when one compares the B flat Symphony to his earlier symphonic effort, one notices that, while the same amalgamation of influences and styles is represented, more of the composer's own voice comes through – prompting one observer to suggest two different ways of looking at the work: "either as Zemlinsky's last early work or his first mature one."