Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Bernard Haitink) (2CDs, Br-Klassik)

To this day, Gustav Mahler’s Third Symphony is considered to be one of the greatest and most powerful creations by the late Romantic composer. Among Mahler’s three symphonies, which set texts from the poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim (the second to fourth), the third clearly surpasses the others in scale and monumentality; it is Mahler’s longest work and is one of the long symphonies of romance in general. The major symphonic work was created over a period of four years, between 1892 and 1896; The main creative periods were the summers of 1895 and 1896, which Mahler spent on the Attersee. After individual movements of the symphony had already been performed, the first performance of the complete composition took place on June 9, 1902 during the 38th Tonkünstler Festival in Krefeld. Mahler conducted the Städtische Kapelle Krefeld and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, a sensational event and one of the composer’s greatest successes.