Ivan Fischer - Mahler: Symphony No. 2

"From the opening phrases of Mahler's sprawling 'Resurrection' symphony, conductor Ivan Fischer summons forth an arresting wealth of nuance to illuminate the composer's prototypical journey from darkest despair to heavenly transcendence. Complemented by superb engineering, the cellos, double basses, and timpani offer thunderous, often terrifying contrast to the chorus's climactic final transport from perdition to paradise." – Jason Victor Serinus, Stereophile, February 2007

Gustav Mahler's second symphony, subtitled the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894. It is one of Mahler's most popular and successful works. The symphony began life as Totenfeier (Funeral Rites), a one movement symphonic poem based on an epic poem by Adam Mickiewicz, which Mahler completed in 1888. Later, he returned to the movement, and added three others so that by late 1893, the first four movements of the symphony as we now know it were complete. He then set the work aside for a while, aware that it needed something else to complete it, but lacking inspiration as to what that something else might be. In 1894, the conductor Hans von Bulow died, and Mahler went to his funeral. There he heard Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock's Aufersteh'n (Resurrection Ode), and this inspired him to complete his symphony with a massive choral movement with text based on Klopstock's ode. Mahler devised a narrative program for his work in which the first movement represents a funeral, the second movement a remembrance of happy times in the life of the deceased, the third a complete loss of faith, the fourth a rebirth of faith and the fifth movement, after a Beethoven-esque recap of themes from the first and third movements, ends the work with an affirmation of God's love, and recognition of everlasting life. Ivan Fischer leads the Budapest Festival Orchestra in his second recording of Mahler. He is joined by soloists Lisa Milne and Birgit Remmert in a performance that is sure to rank among the finest on disc.