Symphony no. 9

"Salonen emphasises the prophetic rather than the nostalgic. He is electrifying in the grotesque rondo-burlesque scherzo...In the two massive slow outer movements...[he] empathises with the love of life and the beauties of nature that paradoxically emerge from Mahler's premonition of death." Sunday Times, 6th June 2010

Signum's third disc with the Philharmonia Orchestra and their Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen is drawn again from their celebrated Vienna: City of Dreams series of 2008-9. The Ninth symphony is often interpreted as a farewell to the world, in part because Mahler never had the chance to hear it performed. As one critic wrote, "If you want to learn to weep, you should listen to the first movement of the Ninth, the great, magnificent song of ultimate farewell". Other releases this year with the Philharmonia orchestra will include Mahler's Sixth Symphony with Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony with Sir Charles Mackerras.