─ 歐斯莫．凡斯卡 Osmo Vanska／指揮
─ 明尼蘇達管弦樂團 Minnesota Orchestra

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 Frère 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 instalment in a series which has earned the team the description `among the finest exponents of Mahler`s music` on the website allmusic.com.