Adam Fischer, Festspielorchester des Gustav Mahler Fest Kassel – Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor “Resurrection” (Live) (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Adam Fischer, Festspielorchester des Gustav Mahler Fest Kassel - Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor

Adam Fischer, Festspielorchester des Gustav Mahler Fest Kassel – Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor “Resurrection” (Live) (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:22:12 minutes | 802 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Ars Produktion

Mahler attraction: with the “Gustav Mahler Fest Kassel” created by the then GMD Ádám Fischer, the city received another internationally important cultural attraction in addition to the art exhibition “documenta”. With the Festspielorchester, an ensemble of its own quality and characteristics was created. In addition to the concertmaster Rainer Hocke of the Vienna Philharmonic, the oboe and clarinet groups made up of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Symphony were formed, whose instruments have special characteristics and thus a specific sound. The same applies to the horns, which play an important role at Mahler.
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Ádám Fischer – Mahler: Symphonie No. 8 (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Ádám Fischer – Mahler: Symphonie No. 8 (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:17:15 minutes | 760 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin

Mahler’s Eighth is a special challenge for all participants: in rehearsals, in performance, and, of course, when making a recording. The challenge lies in freeing the music from all of the technical and logistical problems that come with it. Whenever new possibilities emerged in music history (such as new musical instruments), composers tended to introduce the novelty quite frequently in the first phase to show its potential. A good example was the Mannheim School in the 1700s.
The crescendo had just been invented: musicians no longer had to play dynamics in “terraced levels”. Mannheim pieces from that period are thus brimming with crescendos: musicians reveled in the new possibilities. Mahler, later on, wanted to explore the possibilities of an orchestra of unprecedented size, particularly in the Eighth. The effects made possible by such an enlargement should not become an end in themselves. That is the special challenge we have faced. If on this recording we have over 500 people singing and playing together, that is only a means, not an end.……

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Danish Chamber Orchestra & Ádám Fischer – Haydn: Late Symphonies, Vol. 2 (2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Danish Chamber Orchestra & Ádám Fischer – Haydn: Late Symphonies, Vol. 2 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:09:11 minutes | 2,19 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos

The second volume in this series is devoted to three more ‘London’ symphonies. No. 96 in D major ‘The Miracle’ – so named, as the legend goes, after a falling chandelier narrowly missed the audience during its Hanover Square Rooms premiere – exemplifies the grandeur of these works. The structural surprises of No. 97 in C major and the hymnal slow movement of No. 98 in B flat major reinforce Haydn’s inexhaustible compositional versatility and inventiveness. These recordings are the product of a two-decade partnership between Adam Fischer and the Danish Chamber Orchestra during which they have explored the most effective technical solutions necessary for performing these works.

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Ádám Fischer – Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor “Resurrection” (2021/2023) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Ádám Fischer – Mahler: Symphony No. 2 in C Minor “Resurrection” (2021/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:21:01 minutes | 676 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music

“Fischer makes the music come alive at every moment, and he is aided by the excellence of the instrumentalists in the festival orchestra. By comparison with a highly detailed conductor like Boulez, Fischer focuses on larger phrases and events. What matters far more is his unerring grasp of the finale’s emotional turns and the rising arc that leads to the ecstatic apotheosis at the end.”
– Fanfare

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Haydn Philharmonie, Adam Fischer – Joseph Haydn: Symphonies No. 97 & 102 (2007) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Haydn Philharmonie, Adam Fischer – Joseph Haydn: Symphonies No. 97 & 102 (2007)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 51:34 minutes | 924 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MDG Records

How much Haydn is enough Haydn? Now that all the symphonies have been recorded several times, now that period-instrument and modern-instrument performances are available, and now that original versions, published versions, and variant versions have all been documented, is there really a need for more Haydn recordings? More specifically, is there really a need for a second series of recordings of Haydn’s symphonies with Adam Fischer leading the Österreichisch-Ungarische Haydn-Philharmonie (aka the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic)? After all, they had already recorded all of Haydn’s symphonies label in the ’90s for the English Nimbus in performances that were smart and stylish, and that set well with the composer’s unique combination of high art, deep feeling, and good fun. If the performances are all as fine as this coupling of the Symphonies No. 97 and No. 102 with the Overture “L’anima del filosofo,” the answer is yes.

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Haydn Philharmonie, Adam Fischer – Haydn: Symphonies No. 88 & 101 (2007) [Official Digital Download 24bit/88,2kHz]

Haydn Philharmonie, Adam Fischer – Haydn: Symphonies No. 88 & 101 (2007)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 55:16 minutes | 800 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MDG Records

Founded in the late ’80s just before the collapse of the Iron Curtain by Hungarian conductor Adam Fischer, the Österreichisch-Ungarische Philharmonie (aka, the Austro-Hungarian Philharmonic) had already recorded the complete symphonies of Franz Josef Haydn for the English Nimbus label in the ’90s when it returned to selected symphonies for the German Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm label in the 2000s. And good as the earlier performances were, the later performances – in this case, Symphonies No. 88 and No. 101 plus the Overture to the opera L’isola disabitata – are even better. Familiarity with the entire body of Haydn’s orchestral works has bred only deeper understanding and greater fondness in these musicians and the thousands of small but telling improvements in their performances. Listen just to Symphony No. 88’s Menuetto and Trio – to the swaggering upbeat into big timpani downbeat in the Menuetto or the evocative woodwinds in the Trio with the strings swelling delightfully behind them. In every moment of these performances, Fischer and his musicians show that sort of attention to detail – and that kind of affection for idiom. Recorded in breathtakingly realistic sound in the main hall of Estrahazy Castle – the room for which most of Haydn’s orchestral music was originally conceived and executed – this disc deserves to be heard by anyone who loves great music and great art. Review by James Leonard

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Adam Fischer, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Tünde Szabóvski, Nadine Weissmann – Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Adam Fischer, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Tünde Szabóvski, Nadine Weissmann – Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:21:01 minutes | 730 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music

“… Apart from these considerations in terms of content, Mahler’s Second Symphony has special significance for me – for entirely different reasons. The first reason is biographical. Mahler finished writing the first movement in Budapest where he was musical director at the opera. When I was likewise general music director at Budapest Opera, I imagined that Mahler had sat in the same room and gotten angry over the same things as I did. Work at the opera must have been so nerve-wracking that he found no time for anything else. I can only confirm that.

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Adam Fischer, Danish Chamber Orchestra – Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Adam Fischer, Danish Chamber Orchestra – Beethoven: Complete Symphonies (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 05:28:37 minutes | 5,56 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos

Beethoven‘s symphonies pose without any doubt one of the greatest artistic challenges to every conductor. Of the countless questions about what an authentic interpretation means, I am addressing only one here, namely the problem of Beethoven’s metronome markings. As we know, the first metronomes were built in Vienna during Beethoven’s lifetime and he did then give metronome markings to his pieces (retrospectively in most cases).

For generations, the musical world has debated the subject of how to approach these metronome markings and to what extent a close adherence to Beethoven’s tempi must form an integral part of a faithful rendering of Beethoven’s work. In my student days it was still generally believed that Beethoven’s metronome was faulty, on the grounds that the tempi were too fast and unplayable. So, the markings had to be wrong. Later, especially with the advent of period instrument ensembles, some recordings were made which were unwavering in their strict adherence to Beethoven’s tempi, for better or worse so to speak.

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Danish Chamber Orchestra & Ádám Fischer – Brahms: Complete Symphonies (2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Danish Chamber Orchestra & Ádám Fischer – Brahms: Complete Symphonies (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:32:06 minutes | 4,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos

Brahms was 43 years old when, after a long period of maturation, his First Symphony was published. Felix Weingartner commented on it ‘taking hold like the claw of a lion’ and its urgency marked a new phase in Brahms’ musical development. The Second Symphony is traditionally seen as the pastoral element in the cycle, while the Third, with its melodic beauty, has the courage to end quietly, an act of astonishing serenity. The compelling Passacaglia finale of the Fourth Symphony represents a fitting summation to one of the greatest symphonic cycles in the classical canon.

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Adam Fischer, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker & Hanna-Elisabeth Müller – Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Adam Fischer, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker & Hanna-Elisabeth Müller – Mahler: Symphony No. 4 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 56:50 minutes | 540 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music

“The Fourth is Mahler’s most transparent and lyrical symphony – almost a chamber symphony. Probably also due to its rather reduced format, it has been received in unique and contradictory ways. Even during the time when international audiences had practically no knowledge of Mahler’s music, the Fourth remained relatively popular. Today it is regarded as less impressive than the First, Second, Third, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies; from my point of view, however, this stems from an unacceptable misunderstanding. Stylistically, the Fourth poses a truly special challenge I find quite exciting. It is Mahler’s “Pastoral Symphony”. The musical style of the Vienna Secession movement tended to integrate elements of Viennese musical tradition into purely classical works. Many listeners did not take that tendency seriously and branded it as harking back to overbaked ideas (I overheard statements to this effect when I was a child). Of all Mahler’s symphonies, the Fourth is perhaps the one where he puts those Viennese elements most clearly on display. I once even heard the cruel remark that Mahler’s Fourth Symphony amounted to nothing else than the expression of his sadness for not being Schubert. Frankly, this music is everything else but a Schubert imitation. Much of Schubert – and of Haydn – admittedly does resurface here, along with typical Viennese effects including a particular kind of glissando, for instance, and those stylistic means are one of the Fourth’s essential elements. We should therefore perform them in a way that makes them quite noticeable.” (from booklet)

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Düsseldorfer Symphoniker & Adam Fischer – Mahler: Symphonie No. 9 (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Düsseldorfer Symphoniker & Adam Fischer – Mahler: Symphonie No. 9 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:19:03 minutes | 733 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) – austrian conductor who greatly enhanced the reputation of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. As a composer his Romantic style was much influenced by Brahms, Wagner and Bruckner. His nine symphonies (and an unfinished tenth) were slow to gain international recognition but are now highly regarded.

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Adam Fischer, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker – Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Adam Fischer, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker – Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 53:01 minutes | 502 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music

“I am delighted to perform and record the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. The result, we hope, should be something special: a rendition that stems from an active collaboration in which we mutually inspire one another. This should not be “my” Mahler, but “our” Mahler…….. Gustav Mahler premiered his First Symphony at the age of 29. For personal reasons I feel a close bond with that 29-year-old Musical Director of the Hungarian State Opera. 120 years later, I was named General Music Director of the same opera house. We both hastily abandoned the institution after 2 1/2 years.

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Adam Fischer – Mahler: Symphonie No. 3 (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Adam Fischer – Mahler: Symphonie No. 3 (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:35:51 minutes | 921 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © CAvi-music

Mahler’s entire output seems like one long farewell to me: it is as if he was bidding farewell to the past and likewise to the future, since he had a great fear of death. At the end of his symphonies we often encounter utopias, as here in the Adagio of the Third, and many years later, particularly, in the Ninth.

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