Fischer Düssseldorfer Symphoniker - Symphony 9 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The much acclaimed series of the complete Mahler Symphonies with the Düsseldorf Symphonic under the baton of Ádám Fischer gets more complete with the of the Symphony No. 2. Ádám Fischer writes InchMahler's Second Symphony has special significance for me... The first reason is biographical. Mahler finished writing the first movement in Budapest where he was musical director at the opera. When I was likewise general music director at Budapest Opera, I imagined that Mahler had sat in the same room and gotten angry over the same things as I did. Work at the opera must have been so nerve-wracking that he found no time for anything else. I can only confirm that. A second thought leads me to Haydn. We know that famous quote from Hans von Bülow, who is reported to have exclaimed that Wagner's Tristan, compared with the first movement of Mahler's Second Symphony, was as tame as a Haydn symphony. This mainly leads me to think that von Bülow was probably not yet aware of the direct connection that leads from Haydn to Mahler, which I sense. As far as I am concerned, Mahler is just as much a part of Vienna Classicism as Haydn. The third personal story has to do with the third movement, which is based on Mahler's song Saint Anthony of Padua's Sermon to the Fishes. For the past thirty years I have been working in favor of a series of human and citizens' rights organizations. I find that no other piece better describes the dilemma experienced by these organizations and movements than Mahler's song.Inch

Adam Fischer writes of Mahler's 8th Symphonie InchMahler's Eighth is a special challenge for all participants in rehearsals, in performance, and, of course, when making a recording. The challenge lies in freeing the music from all of the technical and logistical problems that come with it. Whenever new possibilities emerged in music history (such as new musical instruments), composers tended to introduce the novelty quite frequently in the first phase to show it's potential. A good example was the Mannheim School in the 1700s. The crescendo had just been invented musicians no longer had to play dynamics in Inchterraced levels.Inch Mannheim pieces from that period are thus brimming with crescendos musicians reveled in the new possibilities. Mahler, later on, wanted to explore the possibilities of an orchestra of unprecedented size, particularly in the Eighth. The effects made possible by such an enlargement should not become an end in themselves. That is the special challenge we have faced. If on this recording we have over 500 people singing and playing together, that is only a means, not an end...Inch

Gustav Mahler was already very close to the after-world when he ceased work on the 9th Symphony. So, the work is permeated by a permanent presentiment of death. At the same time, Mahler's music vibrates full of vital energy, putting the listener in a melancholic, yet optimistic mood simultaneously. The result is a harrowing work with moving passages and violent explosions, mirroring Mahler's personal drama between life and death. The present recording from the Essen Philharmonie (April 2018) is a perfect proof of all these facts. Tomas Netopil took up the position of General Music Director of the Aalto Theatre and Philharmonie Essen at the start of the 2013/14 season. Netopil made his debut with Sachsische Staatsoper Dresden in 2008. An inspirational force in Czech music, Tomas Netopil is one of the two Principal Guest Conductors of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.