Symphony No.9 by Michael Schønwandt / Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Gustav Mahler

Michael Schønwandt / Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Symphony No.9

Price: € 12.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917263626
Catnr: CC 72636
Release date: 21 April 2014
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Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917263626

Catalogue number
CC 72636

Release date
21 April 2014

"Schønwandt lets us hear all – the orchestral playing fiery and radiant, the tempi flowing (...) Fearless orchestral playing and a close, detailed recording"

theaterdesk.com, 18-10-2014

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony is often viewed as a valedictory work, a final statement from the last symphonic master in the Austro-German musical tradition. Naturally, there is plenty of evidence to both confirm and complicate such a view, and a brief survey of that evidence allows the compelling story of Mahler's Ninth to begin to take shape.

Mahler was thinking about death when he composed the Ninth. His four-year-old daughter had died in 1907, traumatizing the composer - he could not bear mention of the child's name - and forcing the family to move to find a new summer retreat, one free of painful associations. In 1907, Mahler was also diagnosed with the heart condition that would kill him four years later.

So in the Ninth Symphony we definitely have a composer preoccupied with "the end," with his own and others' mortality. But Mahler didn't see the Ninth as his final work - the Tenth, much of which he completed before he died, ended up being that. He was simply grappling with the same questions of life and death he faced in much of his music. Many of Mahler's young admirers - among them Berg and Arnold Schoenberg - had already started to experiment with atonality by 1909, but Mahler's achievement in the Ninth Symphony, with its combination of deeply personal expression, massive but coherent musical structures, and unraveling tonality, had enormous implications for these young composers. The Symphony, then, may have been a kind of farewell for the composer, but it also pointed the way toward the future, the simultaneous last breath of the Romantic era and first breath of the Modern.

Michael Schønwandt:
"There are moments in life, which seem to be totally accidental, but in retrospect have a very significant importance. One such essential moment happened to me in the beginning of 2012, when I received a phone call late Sunday night. I was informed, that a dear colleague of mine, who was scheduled to conduct a performance of Mahler´s 9th symphony with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra on the following Thursday, had to cancel his participation due to flu. The rehearsals were planned to start the following morning! Finding yourself exposed to this shattering description of life´s most ultimate moments – the struggle to cling on to life and accepting the inevitable fate of leaving this world is one, which certainly follows any human being to the end of our days. And the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra responded to the music of Gustav Mahler with an understanding, a love and and a devotion, that made us melt together and unite in the description of the passage from our world to whatever awaits us – if anything. I am forever grateful for this moment, and it is with humility, but also with a deep sense of gratitude, that I invite you to participate in this voyage into the world of Gustav Mahler – and into our own world and ourselves."

Een frisse en originele live-opname van Mahlers laatste symfonie
Michael Schønwandt omschrijft zijn opnames van Mahlers Negende Symfonie als een bijzondere ervaring: "Er zijn momenten in het leven, die eerst toevallig lijken, maar later een belangrijke betekenis blijken te hebben. Een dergelijk moment overkwam me in het begin van 2012, toen ik gebeld werd op een zondagavond. Ik werd ervan op de hoogte gebracht dat een van mijn dierbare collega’s, die een uitvoering van Mahlers Negende Symfonie zou dirigeren met het Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, van zijn deelname moest afzien in verband met de griep. De repetities zouden al de volgende morgen beginnen!

Het Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra reageerde op de muziek van Mahler met begrip, liefde en toewijding, wat ons samenbracht in de beschrijving van de overgang van onze wereld naar wat ons daarna te wachten staat – als er al iets daarna is. Ik ben eeuwig dankbaar voor dit moment. Het is met bescheidenheid, maar ook met dankbaarheid, dat ik de luisteraar uitnodig om deel te nemen aan deze reis naar de wereld van Gustav Mahler – en naar onze eigen wereld."

Schønwandt en het Danish Symphony Orchestra geven op dit dubbelalbum een frisse en originele interpretatie van een van de bekendste symfonische meesterwerken van de 20e eeuw. Zowel de dirigent als het orkest zijn specialisten op het gebied van vroege 20e-eeuwse muziek. Luister naar de gedetailleerde uitvoering van de eerste delen, gevolgd door de virtuoze en ontroerende uitvoering van de laatste delen.

Michael Schønwandt mit einer sehr persönlichen Interpretation der Klangwelt in Mahlers 9. Sinfonie.

Zu dieser Aufnahme der 9. Sinfonie von Gustav Mahler wurde der Dirigent Michael Schønwandt als „Einspringer“ geholt. Durch die Erkrankung eines Kollegen musste sich der Däne quasi über Nacht zu den bereits festgelegten Proben- und Aufnahmeterminen entscheiden. Für ihn und das Orchester war es eine glückliche Fügung. Nicht nur die Musiker des Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, sondern auch Michael Schønwandt besitzen eine große Affinität zur Musik von Gustav Mahler.
„Ich bin immer dankbar für diesen Moment. Mit Demut, aber auch mit einem tiefen Gefühl der Dankbarkeit lade ich Sie ein, sich an der Reise in die Welt von Gustav Mahler zu beteiligen.“ (Michael Schønwandt)

Artist(s)

Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Michael Schønwandt (conductor)

Michael Schønwandt, born in Copenhagen, was Music Director of the Royal Orchestra and the Royal Opera in Copenhagen from 2000-2011, and associated with the company since 1979. In September 2010 he took up the position of Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra.
He has also held posts as Chief Conductor of the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester (1992-1998), Principal Guest Conductor of La Monnaie in Brussels (1984-87), Principal Guest Conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (1987-2000), and Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra, and is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Staatstheater Stuttgart.
As well as his close association with the Royal Opera in Copenhagen (where projects have included a new Ring Cycle in the newly opened opera house in 2006) Michael Schønwandt has conducted at leading opera houses around the world, including regular appearances with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Monnaie in Brussels, Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, Nice Opera, the Stuttgart Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Cologne Opera and Die Meistersinger in Bayreuth. His vast operatic repertoire has included Alceste, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Idomeneo, Fidelio, Der Fliegende Holländer, Parsifal, Tannhäuser, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Lohengrin, Tristan & Isolde, Macbeth, Simone Boccanegra, Otello, Wozzeck, Falstaff, Eugen Onegin, Queen of Spades, Turandot, The Trojans, Salome, Elektra, Rosenkavalier, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Jenufa, The Cunning Little Vixen, Katya Kabanova, Le Grand Macabre and Maskarade by Nielsen.
Michael Schønwandt has a very active concert career and has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra (including all the Beethoven piano concertos with Alfred Brendel), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, the Dresden Philharmonic, Staatsorchester Stuttgart, Essen Philharmonic, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Helsinki Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Warsaw, the Royal Flanders Philharmonic, the Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie in Brussels and engagements in Bonn, Zurich, Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki, Graz, and Rome.
Michael Schønwandt has a special interest in Danish music. He is regarded as one of the leading exponents of Carl Nielsen’s music and has recorded all his symphonies and concertos. He has also recorded the complete symphonies by Niels Gade and Weyse and his interest in contemporary music has led him to conduct many world premieres by Danish composers.
Michael Schønwandt has made many notable recordings with the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra for Chandos, including Strauss’ Salome, released in 1999, and hailed by the Gramophone magazine as the best recording ever of the work.
In May 2011 Michael Schønwandt was awarded Commander in the Royal Danish Order of the Dannebrog for his particular contribution to the arts.

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Composer(s)

Gustav Mahler

During his own time, Gustav Mahler was considered as one of the major conductors of Europe, but nowadays he is considered to a major composer who bridged the Late Romantic period to the modern age. Few composers are so connected with the symphonic repertory as Gustav Mahler. Composing symphonies was his 'core business': in every aspect he developed the symphony towards, and sometimes even over, its absolute limits. Almost all of Mahler's symphonies are lenghty, demand a large orchestra and are particularly great in their expressive qualities. With rustic and mythical atmospheres (the start of the First Symphony), daunting chaos (the end of his Sixth), grand visions (end of his Second), cheerful melodies (opening Fourth), romantic melancholy (the famous adagio of...

During his own time, Gustav Mahler was considered as one of the major conductors of Europe, but nowadays he is considered to a major composer who bridged the Late Romantic period to the modern age.

Few composers are so connected with the symphonic repertory as Gustav Mahler. Composing symphonies was his "core business": in every aspect he developed the symphony towards, and sometimes even over, its absolute limits. Almost all of Mahler's symphonies are lenghty, demand a large orchestra and are particularly great in their expressive qualities. With rustic and mythical atmospheres (the start of the First Symphony), daunting chaos (the end of his Sixth), grand visions (end of his Second), cheerful melodies (opening Fourth), romantic melancholy (the famous adagio of his Fifth), evocations of nature (his Third), megalomanic eruptions in the orchestra (his Eighth), and the clamant atonality of his unfinished Tenth, Mahler's musical palette seemed inexhaustible.

His symphonies are captivating, but some could find it a bit 'over the top' at times. For those, his orchestral songs could undoubtedly show there is an incredibly subtle and refined side to his compositional style as well.

In the Netherlands, Mahler is particularly popular due to its close bond with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, which was already established during his lifetime!

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Press

Schønwandt lets us hear all – the orchestral playing fiery and radiant, the tempi flowing (...) Fearless orchestral playing and a close, detailed recording
theaterdesk.com, 18-10-2014

No quote
Luister, 01-10-2014

Schønwandt and his players make a nice distinction between the types of ending towards the movement's own conclusion, in the contrast of jutting or tapered phrases, that we used to call masculine or feminine.
Gramophone, 01-9-2014

A rendition of visceral power, this is a must for Mahlerians.
Northern Echo , 05-6-2014

The opening Andante is powerfully affecting, and the recording dies full justice to that astonishing writing for strings.
Classical CD Reviews, 30-5-2014

There are already many excellent recordings of this symphony, but it is an asset.
Opus Klassiek, 28-5-2014

"I hear a circumstantial decisiveness, borne of remembered familiarity, that may be considered appropriate given the symphony's own tantalisingly provisional status, completed but never finished as Mahler would have done if only determined to break his own established cycle of composition -- performance -- revision."
Gramophone