Markus Stenz and the Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne continue their Mahler cycle

“Just imagine a work big enough to literally reflect the entire world – one is, so to speak, just an instrument upon which the universe plays.” Gustav Mahler wrote these words to his lover, the singer Anna Mildenburg, in the summer of 1896. Mahler’s artistic aspiration had always been to capture and depict “the whole world” in music. The first performance of the Third Symphony in Krefeld on 9 June 1902, played by musicians from the Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne and the Städtische Kapelle Krefeld with Mahler himself on the podium, brought him recognition from many artists of his time. However, as far as the wider audience was concerned, Mahler’s own prediction turned out to be true: “People will need a while to crack the nuts I have shaken down from the tree.”

This Cologne recording will be released in the UK on 16 April 2012.

> detailed CD information

(17.02.2012)