Mahler: Symphony No. 8

Description

The series of the complete Mahler Symphonies with the Düsseldorf Symphonic under the baton Adam Fischer approaches completion with the release of Symphony No. 8.

Over the last two years, Adam Fischer's Mahler recordings have grown into a hugely successful recording project, winning the BBC Music Magazine Award, and the OPUS KLASSIK Trophy in Germany. The 8th Symphony is certainly the largest project in the series, with three major choirs, Youth choir and eight soloists performing along with the orchestra.

"Mahler'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 its 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 "terraced levels". Mannheim pieces from that period are thus brimming with crescendos: musicians revelled 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…" Adam Fischer

Artists:
Polina Pasztircsák - Soprano
Adam Fischer
Manuela Uhl - Soprano
Fatma Said - Soprano
Katrin Wundsam - Mezzo Soprano
Katharina Magiera - Alto
Neal Cooper - Tenor
Hanno Müller-Brachmann - Baritone
Peter Rose - Bass
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker
Choir of the Städtischer Musikverein
Philharmonischer Chor Bonn
Kartäuserkantorei Köln
Youth Choir of the Clara-Schumann Musikschule