Mahler: Symphony no. 3

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, DeYoung, Michelle, Haitink, Bernard

CSO 901701

The days when the world's great symphony orchestras with their star conductors were swarmed by the big record companies are long gone. Now that the majors have well-stocked archives from past decades, the interest in new recordings of the great symphonic repertoire is so limited that such famous orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra had to fear that their record companies would be forced to put their back catalogue in the back room. The success of the colleagues from the London Symphony Orchestra, who faced this dilemma years ago with their own record label, was the inspiration for the founding of CSO Resound in Chicago. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the world's great traditional orchestras: founded in 1891, its history is associated with the names of such famous conductors as Rafael Kubelik, Fritz Reiner, Georg Solti, Pierre Boulez and Daniel Barenboim. Since 2006, Bernard Haitink as Principal Conductor and former Principal Guest Conductor Pierre Boulez have shared the artistic direction of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

With the choice of a symphony by Gustav Mahler as the first release on CSO Resound, a composer of particular importance to the orchestra is appearing at the very beginning of its discographic independence. The CSO has long been intimately associated with the work of Gustav Mahler; the music of the great Austrian late Romantic composer was part of Fritz Reiner's preferred repertoire; with Georg Solti, the orchestra recorded the complete Mahler symphonies; Pierre Boulez has also set milestones in Mahler discography with the CSO - and if further confirmation is needed that Bernard Haitink is one of the most important Mahler interpreters of our time, the present live recording from October 2006 can undoubtedly serve as convincing proof.

CD x 1

CSO

15/05/2007

810449017015