Adam Fischer & Dusseldorfer Symphoniker - Mahler: Symphony No. 7 (2016) [Hi-Res]

In setting out to record the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler with the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker, Maestro Adam Fischer hoped to create something special with the ensemble. He hoped that conductor and musicians would mutually inspire one another, not creating Fischer’s Mahler, but rather “our” Mahler. Fischer writes of this process: “Whenever I conduct Mahler, I attempt to find a way to formulate each symphony’s world and its emotional content in a way that I can apprehend. Out of the music, I spin stories for myself… It is the result of a long process, in the course of which I ensure that the scores become my innermost conviction. In my view, this is the conductor’s task. It is exactly the opposite of “work-to-rule.”

„For the first installment of the Mahler Edition on CAvi-music, Adam Fischer leads a live performance of the Symphony No. 7 in E minor, assembled from different concerts in late November 2015. Perhaps the oddest of Mahler's symphonies in its structure and quirky mix of vernacular styles, the piece has been unofficially nicknamed "The Song of the Night," due to its dark first movement, its two Nachtmusiken, and the shadowy Scherzo at its center; only the bright and bumptious Rondo-Finale alleviates the pervasive nocturnal feeling. A conductor less attentive to formal considerations might let this symphony drift into a series of eccentric episodes or pseudo-tone poems, but Fischer maintains a clear sense of momentum through the five movements and firmly keeps the symphony on its "from dusk till dawn" trajectory. The Dusseldorf Symphony plays with skill and precision, keeping together without any signs of fatigue and playing with the commitment and passionate intensity of the world's great Mahler orchestras. This may be a curious way to begin a Mahler cycle, but this Seventh is an excellent indicator of great things to come.“ (Blair Sanderson, AMG)

Angelos Kritikos, tenor horn
Dusseldorfer Symphoniker
Adam Fischer, conductor