Minnesota Orchestra & Osmo Vänskä – Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan” (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Minnesota Orchestra & Osmo Vänskä – Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan” (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:45 minutes | 889 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BIS

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 Frere 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 installment in a series which has earned the team the description ‘among the finest exponents of Mahler’s music’ on the website allmusic.com.

Tracklist:
1. Minnesota Orchestra – Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan”: I. Langsam, schleppend. Immer sehr gemächlich (16:14)
2. Minnesota Orchestra – Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan”: II. Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (07:37)
3. Minnesota Orchestra – Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan”: III. Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen (11:24)
4. Minnesota Orchestra – Symphony No. 1 in D Major “Titan”: IV. Stürmisch bewegt – Energisch (21:28)

Personnel:
Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor

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