I will always remember listening to Mahler’s Third at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, as directed by James Levine. What a thrill that was!
Now there is a new recording out as conducted by Ivan Fischer:
Mahler: Symphony No. 3
With Gerhild Romberger (alto), and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Cantemus Children’s Choir, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Iván Fischer conducting.
Clemens Rominjn wrote:
“Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony, lasting one and a half hours or more, is not only his longest work but at the same time an exuberant and sunny ode to nature, mankind, the world and indeed life itself. And for this song of praise the composer requires both room and lavish means. No less than six movements, the richest of orchestral forces, and a contralto soloist and boys’ and women’s choirs whose sung texts help to bring across the symphony’s message, as in the Second Symphony and later in the Fourth and Eighth as well.”
Here is the Budapest Festival Orchestra performing the third and fourth movements from the Aymphony number 3 by Gustav Mahler:
