Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D 'Titan'

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Every dynamic marking, every nuance of rubato is scrupulously adhered to. — BBC Music Magazine, November 2019 More…

Release Date: 30th Aug 2019
Catalogue No: BIS2346
Label: BIS
Series: Osmo Vänskä Mahler Symphonies
Length: 56 minutes

BBC Music Magazine

November 2019

Orchestral Choice

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major 'Titan'

Work length56:43

Album only

Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä

I. Langsam, schleppend. Immer sehr gemächlich

Track length16:14

Album only

$5.15

$7.00

II. Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell

Track length7:37

$1.50

$2.60

$3.50

III. Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen

Track length11:24

$2.05

$3.85

$5.25

IV. Stürmisch bewegt - Energisch

Track length21:28

Album only

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The shimmering string harmonics at the opening of Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony bring to mind the suspended breath of spring, and will have signalled even to the very first audiences that a new symphonic era was being ushered in. Soon enough the composer introduces some of the elements that would become key components of his musical language: sounds of nature (here cuckoo calls) are combined with quasi-militaristic fanfares and ‘high-art’ chromatic wanderings in cellos, as if to illustrate Mahler’s view of the symphony as an all-embracing art form. The symphony, which the composer originally gave the subtitle ‘Titan’, borrows extensively from the song cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. But Mahler also incorporates elements of Moravian popular music (in the second movement) and – in the slow third movement – famously quotes a minor-mode version of the children’s rhyme Bruder Martin (also known as Frere Jacques). The finale transports the listener to a world of Gothic theatricality reminiscent of Grand Opera, before arriving – after a number of false starts – at the symphony’s heroic chorale-like ending. This symphonic ‘world-in-microcosm’ is here brought to life by the Minnesota Orchestra and Osmo Vanska on the fourth installment in a series which has earned the team the description ‘among the finest exponents of Mahler’s music’ on the website allmusic.com.

Reviews

November 2019

Every dynamic marking, every nuance of rubato is scrupulously adhered to.

October 2019

It may well be that more of the score is audible here than ever before. What’s lacking is less easily defined. Vänskä is not the first conductor to prize textual clarity over the lazier approach of Mitteleuropa…What’s missing en route is a certain geniality.

November 2019

BIS provides excellent and well balanced sound reproduction on this SACD, in the end yielding as much detail in this symphony as I’ve ever heard before. In fact, this may be the finest sounding Mahler First ever, and on the performance side, this must be assessed as a very convincing account overall.

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D 'Titan'

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