Symphony No.1: Gergiev / London Symphony Orchestra

LSO Live

MAHLER: Symphony No. 1

London Symphony Orchestra
Valery Gergiev, conductor

Recorded 13 January 2008, Barbican, London
A high density DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording
SACD Hybrid
CD STEREO/ SACD STEREO/ SACD SURROUND

producer: James Mallinson
balance engineers: Neil Hutchinson and Jonathan Stokes for Classic Sound Ltd

Gergiev’s second LSO Live release was recorded in London during January as part of his ongoing Mahler cycle. Although he has established a formidable reputation as one of the leading interpreters of Mahler’s works in concert, these LSO Live releases are the first time that Gergiev has recorded the composer's music.

Mahler completed his first symphony at the age of 24 and the work was considered a remarkable achievement, especially for someone so young.
The symphony was originally conceived as a tone poem in the form of a symphony. Mahler drew inspiration from nature and described the epic final movement as a journey ‘from inferno to paradise’. ( LSO )

Concert Reviews:
‘a riveting performance of the composer’s Symphony No 1 … vital, reckless and thrilling. In the first movement, the feint skein of virato-free violins seemed not so much to have started as to have been there all along, unheard, part of a sublime landscape in which Gergiev acted as cinematographer, zooming in to the dense forest of clarinets, then swooping down to a meadow of silken cellos … the sinus-clearing shriek of the last movement was one of the most exciting things I’ve heard from the LSO’
Independent on Sunday (UK)

‘an exercise in barely suppressed hysteria, brilliantly illuminated by the LSO woodwinds. Most conductors permit a sense of spatial grandeur as the close approaches. Gergiev was unremitting; aggression and dissonance held the stage at the every end. If you like your Mahler visceral, spine-tingling and dangerous, this was for you … the LSO are certainly playing out of their skins for Gergiev’
The Guardian (UK)

‘He makes all the right noises, he applies the appropriate rubatos, and generates tremendous excitement. There were passages - not least in the tempestuous finale - where the smouldering figurations of the LSO strings could have generated power for a small nation’
The Independent (UK)