Mahler Days

“I was still a student when I heard Leonard Bernstein conducting Mahler in Vienna. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the brilliance of the music. Mahler had incredible imaginative powers. […] In the summertime, he used to live in total isolation. He was composing in a tiny house, where he went out to early in the morning and spent the whole day there. He purposefully arranged everything in order to avoid human beings while working on his compositions. He produced his greatest masterpieces under such circumstances,” says Iván Fischer, who cherishes a special relationship with Mahler’s music. This relationship is acknowledged by critics too: the orchestra’s recording of Symphony No. 5 brought them two international awards in the summer. Following the tradition of the Mahler Fest, we are organising Mahler Days with performances of his Symphony No. 4 and Songs of a Wayfarer on October 3, 4 and 5. The Mahler programme is completed with Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss. The soloist is Swedish soprano Miah Persson, who has been a guest of the Festival Orchestra several times.