The audience knows that the performance of a Mahler symphony is not only a musical experience but is also emotionally effective' (Chailly). This counts especially for Mahler's enigmatic sixth symphony, an emotionally stirring challenge for both performers and listeners, while also 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 fulfill an 'open' sound, conserving whilst respecting its original beauty' (Salzburger Nachrichten).

In 2005, the Staatsoper Berlin and its orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin under musical director Daniel Barenboim, celebrated a series of events to celebrate the 80th birthday of French conductor and composer Pierre Boulez. Artistically associated for decades with Barenboim and Berlin, Pierre Boulez is one of today's most distinguished composers and conductors. As part of the celebration, Boulez conducted a performance of Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony at the Berlin Philharmonie. With his uncompromising approach to the score, Pierre Boulez's Mahler readings have long fascinated critics and audiences alike. Boulez eschews the romanticized readings common in performance tradition and, instead, reveals the real joy and terror in Mahler's large-scale symphonies.

Bavarian Radio Choir And Symphony Orchestra

Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 3 by Bernard Haitink

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.” The painting “Morgenrot” was chosen by internationally acclaimed artist Neo Rauch to feature on the cover of this release on DVD and Blu-ray.

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."

A passionate conductor and composer, Gustav Mahler never received the recognition he deserved during his lifetime but has since come to be known as a prominent post-Romantic master of song and symphony. Filmed in Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary; Hamburg, Germany; and the Czech Republic, this documentary explores the Bohemia-born Mahler's life and inspirations, from his turbulent childhood years to his ambitious adult career.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth and just one month short of his own 85th birthday, composer-conductor Pierre Boulez marked his forty-five-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra by directing this very special Mahler-only concert at Ohio’s splendid Severance Hall. Following the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, he presented Twelve Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher, both much-sought-after opera and concert singers on the world’s leading stages.

Berliner Philharmoniker Sir Simon Rattle

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 [Gewandhausorchester Leipzig; Riccardo Chailly]