This Claudio Abbado recording captures a very special night at the 2007 Lucerne Festival with the massive 3rd symphony by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Ever since its debut in 2003, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra has been enthusiastically received by public and press alike. The orchestra is the realisation of a dream for Claudio Abbado, who handpicked famous soloists, chamber recitalists and orchestral musicians to form this ensemble. Time and again it has been praised for its extraordinary sound and refined playing in the finest spirit of chamber music under the direction of the exceptional Italian conductor. The line-up includes such luminaries as Kolja Blacher and Sabine Meyer, alongside sundry members of the world’s great orchestras. The cello section alone boasts Natalia Gutman, Clemens Hagen and Valentin Erben. On this DVD, the viewer can join in the imposing experience of a live performance of Mahler’s No.3 with its awesome silences and towering climaxes recorded in the acoustically superb Congress and Concert Hall Lucerne in August 2007. Mahler completed the symphony in 1896 and it counts among the longest ever composed, with a performance lasting at least one and a half hours. The popular work became famous through Luciano Visconti’s film “Death in Venice”, where the catchy “Midnight Song” from the Fourth movement serves as a prominent theme. Claudio Abbado is undeniably a supreme Mahler conductor and his best-selling recordings of Mahler’s Nos. 5, 6 and 7 symphonies with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and have set new standards in interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s works. For the performance on this DVD, orchestra and conductor are joined by singer Anna Larsson, the Arnold Schoenberg Choir Vienna and the famous Bavarian Tölz Boys Choir.
Mahler: Symphony No.3