Symphonie Nr.4

With their inimitable combination of modernity and romantic nostalgia, and the alternation of grand orchestral gestures with chamber musical delicacy, the orchestral works of Gustav Mahler remain as impressive and moving today as when they were first performed. This is certainly true of Mahler's 4th Symphony - a work at the crossroads between great romanticism, as in the first three symphonies, and a more modern, "middle" creative period in symphonies 5-7. It is also a deeply ambivalent work: beneath the cheerful and accessible surface lies surprising complexity and even contradiction. Although Mahler still uses many expressions typical of the traditional 19th-century symphony, he simultaneously undermines these stylistic figures and distances himself from the tradition he has inherited. The entire symphony strives towards the rural folk song "Das himmlische Leben" in the 4th movement, sung here by the excellent Swedish soprano Miah Persson. The Piano Quartet is Mahler's only surviving chamber music work and the piece on this album is the only one Mahler actually completed. Presumably written in 1876 or 1877, the piece visibly benefits from Colin Matthew's orchestration - he develops a fascinating piece of music from what was previously a rather historical document. With this fourth recording of Gustavo Gimeno with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg for Pentatone, the conductor impressively continues the successful series following orchestral works by Bruckner, Shostakovich and Ravel.