In einem seiner seltenen Interviews sprach Claudio Abbado mit Julia Spinola über seine lebenslange Auseinandersetzung mit der Musik Gustav Mahlers. Das Interview erschien in der FAZ vom 9.7.2011 (Was hören Sie im Schnee, Signore Abbado?).

Was sind das für Manuskripte, die Sie da gerade vor sich liegen haben und studieren?

Das sind Anmerkungen von Alban Berg zu seiner „Lulu“-Suite, die ich neu bekommen habe. Eintragungen in die Partitur, die sehr interessant sind! (more…)

Our first Mahler interview to appear on this blog was with Daniel Barenboim, back in June 2009. Since then, we’re proud to say that all 27 videos have now been viewed a total of more than 30,000 times. It’s heart-warming to see how much interest there has been in the series.

All videos are now also available on YouTube. And they are still online for all to watch here and on Vimeo.com.

And finally, there are more coming soon. Watch this space …

We have just published the transcripts of several more Mahler interviews, so that they are now nearly all online.

Read the full interviews with Riccardo Chailly, Herbert Blomstedt, Manfred Honeck, Antonio Pappano, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons and many more.

The new Gustav Mahler exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay opened this week in Paris.

The exhibition shows a fascinating collection of material from the archives of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and the Médiathèque Musicale Mahler in Paris. Many of the objects are on display for the first time ever.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is a facsimile of the complete manuscript score of the 4th Symphony. As the music plays from loudspeakers (Jascha Horenstein’s 1970 recording with the London Symphony Orchestra) lights illuminate the relevant page in the score.

Curator Pierre Korzilius spoke to Universal Edition about the exhibition.

The exhibition is on until 29 May 2011.

Press reports:

Naturbursche und Musiktyrann (Deutschlandradio Kultur)
Gustav Mahlers Leid an der Seine (Die Presse)

Full transcripts of our Mahler interviews with Ingo Metzmacher, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Michael Tilson Thomas are now online.

The full transcripts of our Mahler interviews with Jonathan Nott and Kent Nagano are now available.

The Orchestre de Paris opens its 2009-2010 season with Christoph Eschenbach conducting Mahler’s 3rd Symphony (16 and 17 September, Salle Pleyel Paris).

View the Orchestre de Paris’ video interview (in French) with Alain Galliari, director of the Médiathèque Musicale Mahler in Paris.

See also our video interview with Christoph Eschenbach on the music of Gustav Mahler.

Wolfgang Fink, General Manager of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

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

“Jump! Cut! Bang!”

Do you remember the first time you heard Mahler’s music?

Tilson Thomas: I remember very clearly the moment when Mahler’s music reached out and grabbed me; I was 13 years old. I was waiting at the house of my parents’ friends for some reason or another; they were very busy people and they said, “Would you like to listen to some music? For example, do you know Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde?” – which of course I didn’t.

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.

[...]

Find the full interview in Gustav Mahler: The Conductors’ Interviews
Edited by Wolfgang Schaufler
ISBN: 978-3-7024-7162-0
ISMN: 979-0-008-08493-5
Order number: UE26311 (German Edition: UE26310)

“Mahler is certainly the greatest symphonist ever”

Do you remember the first time you heard Mahler’s music?

Eschenbach: Mahler wasn’t very popular in Germany during my childhood, for obvious reasons; he was banned during the Hitler years. Only slowly did Mahler symphonies return to concert programmes. I was living in the country, in Schleswig-Holstein, so I didn’t have many opportunities to go to concerts anyway, but I remember listening to Mahler records. There was a very famous actor at the time, Gustaf Gründgens, whom I knew, and he introduced me in 1961 to the 2nd Symphony. It’s very interesting that it was him.

[...]

Find the full interview in Gustav Mahler: The Conductors’ Interviews
Edited by Wolfgang Schaufler
ISBN: 978-3-7024-7162-0
ISMN: 979-0-008-08493-5
Order number: UE26311 (German Edition: UE26310)