Wolfgang Fink, General Manager of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

Read more about the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’s
International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition.

As reported in the Los Angeles Chronicle, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra starts its 2009/10 season with a festival of Mahler’s music. Michael Tilson Thomas (see our video interview) is joined by soloists Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson.

The Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra — together with the Tübingen Chamber Orchestra — is performing Mahler’s 1st Symphony on the 11th and 12 September this year. Gudni A. Emilsson conducts at the MACM Hall of Mahidol University.

In Taipei, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan is performing the 9th Symphony conducted by Günther Herbig on the 24th September.

Conlon’s Mahler cycle closes with a powerful, moving Ninth Symphony
Lawrence A. Johnson in the Chicago Classical Review

Listen to Bernard Haitink conducting Mahler’s 9th Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra at this year’s BBC Proms.

The broadcast is online for a week (from the 20th July). The Proms Concert Programme booklet can also be viewed online.

100 years after its world première, Mahler’s 8th Symphony will be performed at the Adelaide Festival in Australia (13 March 2010). Arvo Volmer leads the combined forces of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and is joined by the Adelaide Festival Chorus.

“Mahler pursues Schubert’s goals with Wagner’s techniques.”

Do you remember the first time you heard the music of Mahler?

Tilson Thomas: I remember very clearly the moment when Mahler’s music reached out and grabbed me, when I was 13 years old. I was waiting at the house of my parents’ friends for some reason or another, and they were very busy people and they said, “Would you like to listen to some music? For example, do you know Das Lied von der Erde by Mahler?”, which of course I did not. And they said, “Why don’t you listen to the last movement – it’s about 20 minutes long and your parents should be here by then”. And they put on this section, and really I divide my life between before I heard that recording – which was Ferrier and Walter – and after I heard it. The music made a stunning impression on me; it was as if it gave voice to all kinds of feelings that I had, that were part of my family, that were part of the whole connection that my family had to life in small villages in the Ukraine, and the presence of Jewish music – both secular and sacred music – in those villages, and the pull of those different cultures. But when this part [sings extract] came in, it went right into my heart. I could not believe that such symphonic music existed, and I never got over it.

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The Hallé Orchestra, just two years Mahler’s senior, celebrates Mahler in 2010.

Between January and June 2010, the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata and The Bridgewater Hall get together to present a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies as well as additional events.

“Mahler is certainly the greatest symphonist ever.”

Do you remember the first time you heard the music of Gustav Mahler?

Eschenbach: In my childhood there was not very much Mahler in concerts in Germany, (more…)

The Jordan College of Fine Arts at Butler University in Indianapolis is planning a series of events throughout the 2009-2010 season celebrating Mahler’s 150th birthday and the 20th anniniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The series, called Mahler Project – Germanic Creative Expression, includes concerts and lectures on a wide range of subjects.