Mahler 3 with Edward Gardner

In a small cabin nestled in the Alps outside Salzburg, Gustav Mahler set about creating one of music history’s most ambitious visions of the natural world. The composer’s Symphony No. 3 harnessed the expanse that surrounded the composer: the magnificent mountains, open skies, fertile forests and majestically soaring avian life. In Mahler’s symphony, horns bray and trombones growl as nature’s primeval force makes itself felt. Strings and winds murmur through traditional pastoral scenes before being invaded by the blazing march of summer. Human voices move from grief to hope before, as Mahler declared, ‘nature in its totality rings and resounds.’

Honorary Conductor Edward Gardner returns to Bergen for this performance of Mahler’s most heart-warming symphony, bringing with him a mezzo-soprano praised by The Times for the ‘autumnal warmth’ of her singing, Beth Taylor. Women and children from the Bergen Philharmonic and Edvard Grieg Choirs join the orchestra for this not-to-be-missed performance of the score that fully justifies Mahler’s assertion that ‘a symphony must contain the world.’