Marin Alsop - Symphonies 1 & 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Malena Ernman - My Love [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/01/2003

This remarkably original work, with it's recurring quotations from the composer's own songs, notably Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) and Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn), is the perfect expression of one of Mahler's most quoted sayings, InchThe symphony is a world; it must contain everythingInch. The opening movement, filled with sounds that Mahler remembered from his childhood, depicts InchNature's awakening from the long sleep of winterInch, and is followed by an exuberant scherzo and trio based on a Leñndler. The disturbing slow movement funeral march, based on the children's song Frere Jacques, is unlike anything that had been heard before, and the symphony concludes with music of thrilling dramatic intensity. Marin Alsop has been Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007, a relationship now extended to 2015. Currently Conductor Emeritus of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Laureate of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, since 1992 she has also been Music Director of California's prize-winning Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

It is rare to be able to say that a performance forces one to listen to a work anew, but this is exactly what Alsop' reading achieves. Excellently recorded... this is a superb issue all round.