Mahler . Scartazzini: Complete Symphonies Vol. 5

Description

Simon Gaudenz conducts the Jenaer Philharmonie in the culmination of their series of recordings of the complete Mahler Symphonies, interspersed with world-premiere recordings of pieces by Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini that reflect each symphony and pay homage to Mahler's soundworld. This fifth volume features Mahler's Symphony No. 1 as well as his last, incomplete Symphony No. 10, as well as works by Scartazzini that bookend and illuminate both Mahler's last musical gasp, and the spectrum of Mahler's symphonic output. Mahler's symphonies represent an extraordinary body of work, and it is fascinating to hear them contrasted and commented upon by a new piece specially created to shed light on or pay tribute to that symphony. Since 2018, Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has been Composer-in-Residence with the Jenaer Philharmonie, in which role he has been writing these new companion pieces to each of Mahler's symphonies, which are being performed in Jena as a cycle in chronological order. This collaboration over a period of seven years is remarkable in many respects. Now that the end of the cycle has been reached, there are ten new works, each of which can be performed individually or in groups before the Mahler symphonies, but also as full-length concert works. Scartazzini has been passionately committed to the task from the beginning, especially as Mahler's music is particularly close to his heart: "I have a deep love for the work of Gustav Mahler; his symphonies have been my musical companions for many years, and every time I hear them again I am moved by the sheer abundance of inspiration and emotionality," he wrote at the start of the cycle. The title of Scartazzini's Torso reflects the incomplete nature of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, and it offers both introduction and conclusion to the remaining movement of Mahler's work. The other Scartazzini pieces on this recording are paired with Mahler's symphonies, drawing upon key themes from those works in a way that tells the story of their progression, using exceptional colouristic effects - including, in Spiriti, the 'Nicophone', a new metal instrument whose immense colour spectrum ranges from long-reverberating metallic tones to sounds reminiscent of those from early electronic studios. The delicate, fragile sounds form a deliberate contrast to the powerful first movement of Mahler's Third.