Keeping Score - Revealing classical music - Mahler: origins and legacy

"As in previous issues, the wealth of solidly researched detail is musically provocative and visually stimulating...Tilson Thomas presents Mahler as embracing both [Jewish and Christian roots] as part of a universal musical and moral outlook...overall, Tilson Thomas and his associates bring Mahler's music to life in a way that makes even the novice appreciate its astounding unity within diversity."
(BBC Music Magazine DVD Choice - May 2011)

The latest instalment in MTT's and SFS's engaging Keeping Score series explores the life and works of Gustav Mahler, in two documentaries and two live performances.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony present the latest instalment in their acclaimed Keeping Score series, exploring the life and music of Gustav Mahler. In the year marking both the 100th anniversary of the composer's death and the founding of the San Francisco Symphony, 'Mahler: Origins and Legacy', focuses on the enigmatic composer with two one-hour documentaries and two live performances. "Gustav Mahler was a visionary musician," says MTT. "In his compositions he made reference to many styles, building his huge symphonies from materials abstracted from songs, dances and marches from many cultures. His symphonies, or worlds, as he called them, represent the many ways that people make music and why they make music. In Keeping Score: Mahler, we walk in his footsteps, visit the places and sounds that influenced his life."

Keeping Score: Mahler is designed to engage, educate and entertain viewers of all musical backgrounds, from classical music enthusiasts to those hearing Mahler's music for the first time. With MTT and SFS firmly established among the leading interpreters of Mahler's music, these programmes are a fitting culmination to their decade-long Mahler recording project. To coincide with its release, MTT and SFS will embark on a three-week European tour performing Mahler's works including Prague and Vienna where there will be special screenings of Keeping Score: Mahler.