The hr-Sinfonieorchester has for decades been numbered among the world’s leading Mahler orchestras. Between 2008 and 2013 it gave its most recent Mahler cycle as part of the Rheingau Music Festival under its then principal conductor Paavo Järvi. The recordings were made in the unique space of the Basilica of Eberbach Monastery, in the magnificent ambiance of the Friedrich von Thiersch Hall at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus and in the outstanding acoustics of the Great Hall of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In all of these venues Mahler’s symphonies left a particularly fascinating impression.
Paavo Järvi conducts Mahler: The Symphony Cycle
„Mahler’s heaven’s gates open“ exults the press on the occasion of Mahler’s first symphony, presented by Paavo Järvi and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra during the Rheingau Music Festival, as part of a multi-year cycle “at the highest niveau” (FAZ). Not only with this one, but with each individual symphony, succeeds Järvi, “the musical dramatist of superior vision” (FAZ) to excite the audience. Also in Mahler’s Eighth, he creates “richness of colour, depth and a visionary force that literally sweeps the listener” (FAZ). And so it is this very cycle that „contributes significantly to the rise of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra into the top group of German Radio Orchestras” (FAZ) and with which they reinforce their reputation as Mahler specialists. The Rheingau Music Festival provides for the Mahler cycle, not least for the “Symphony of a Thousand” the ideal stage: it is one of Europe’s largest music festivals with numerous concerts in churches and palaces, among others the very prestigious performing arts centers Kloster Eberbach and the Frankfurt Opera House. Programme includes Symphonys 1-10.