In the orchestral literature, the Symphony number 3 by Gustav Mahler ranks among the top five creations bring me huge pleasure.
This symphony still ranks today as one of the greatest and most powerful creations of the Late Romantic period. The huge symphony, longer and more monumental than the others and containing texts from the collection of poems by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim entitled “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”, was composed over a period of four years from 1892 to 1896, and especially during the summers of 1895 and 1896, which Mahler spent at the Attersee in Austria.
I visited the little village of Seefeld am Attersee, where Mahler built his summer home. I was steeped with the air, the view of the mountains, the sound of the grazing cow bells, and the opportunity to take long walks, as Mahler had done.
The symphony is a huge challenge for all its performers, and this concert has a prestigious line-up: guest conductor Bernard Haitink with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Augsburger Domsingknaben and the Frauenchor des Bayerischen Rundfunks; the solo parts are sung by Gerhild Romberger.
Here is Bernard Haitink, performing the entire Symphony number 3 by Gustav Mahler:
