Further Reading
5th September 2011
The Russian conductor’s painstaking attention to tiny issues of orchestral balance and uncharacteristic willingness to allow the music breathing-space make for a tremendously moving Ninth Symphony.
The final release in Valery Gergiev’s acclaimed Mahler cycle features the composer’s Symphony No 9, recorded at the Barbican in March 2011.
Mahler’s wrote his Ninth Symphony during a time of great personal suffering and heartache. This is reflected in the music, at times manic and fierce, at others delicate and serene, as it explores many emotions and ultimately concludes with the heart-stopping coda of the Adagio, seemingly conveying the composer’s acceptance of his own mortality.
In addition to his recordings of Mahler’s symphonies, Gergiev’s other recent releases on LSO Live have included acclaimed recordings of music by Debussy, Ravel and Rachmaninov as well as Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet which recently won Disc of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards.
Forthcoming releases on the Mariinsky label, which is managed on behalf of the Mariinsky Theatre by LSO Live, include Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, conducted by Valery Gergiev and featuring Natalie Dessay in the title role alongside Piotr Beczala and Ilya Bannik. The Mariinsky label also releases its first DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs in October.
CONCERT REVIEWS
“from the rosy vein struck by the strings to the honed gestures of the woodwind, here was an orchestra at one with itself and its Director” The Guardian
“Gergiev’s reading was both valid and deeply moving. Finally all tears were wiped away, all coughing silenced, in a breathless,peerlessly executed coda [Adagio]” Evening Standard
“There’s nothing on the classical circuit that quite compares to the full Valery Gergiev experience. Gergiev’s pacing of the Adagio ... felt absolutely right. And the LSO fiddles played majestically for him” The Times
