Valery Gergiev conductor

Rachmaninov’s vast Second Symphony was composed when he was at the pinnacle of his career as a composer, pianist and conductor. Filled with emotion...

Following his principle that “the symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything”, Mahler’s all-encompassing Third Symphony is his att...

Mahler completed his first symphony at the age of 24 and the work was considered a remarkable achievement, especially for someone so young. The sym...

Does Mahler’s Sixth Symphony foretell the tragedy of his later life, or does it have a more cerebral purpose? Whatever the composer’s motives for w...

Using a reduced orchestra, unusually without any lower brass, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony is influenced by the trend to revive the classical style of ...

Mahler’s monumental Eighth Symphony is, unusually for a symphony, structured in two-parts. Part I’s exuberant hymn of praise to the creator spirit ...

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony marked a new direction in his compositions and a step away from the choral elements of the previous three symphonies. The w...

Mahler’s extraordinary Second Symphony deals with the epic themes of life, death, faith, and love. He employs a vast orchestra in a search for salv...

Less than four years separate the premieres of Les Noces and Oedipus Rex, yet they each represent high-points in two distinct phases of Stravinsky’...