Even before he took up his post as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Simon Rattle began a cycle of Mahler's symphonies with the Ninth in November 2021 (BR-KLASSIK 900205). The Sixth followed in September 2023 (BR-KLASSIK 900217) and now he is taking on the Seventh Symphony by the important late-Romantic symphonist. This cycle marks the start of a new chapter in Mahler interpretation, as Rattle is just as ardent a Mahler admirer at the helm of the orchestra as his predecessors Jansons, Maazel and Kubelík were. BR-KLASSIK has already released the live recording of the current concert with Mahler's impressive Seventh Symphony from November 2024.

Sorrow and happiness, dark and light make up the charm of Gustav Mahler's multi-layered Seventh Symphony. Composed in the idyllic natural surroundings of Lake Wörthersee, it is one of his great, yet somewhat enigmatic works. The interplay between the emotional extremes has always posed questions for interpreters. After the consistently tragic Sixth Symphony, the Seventh Symphony contrasts the gloomy mood with a life-affirming trait. Mahler skillfully incorporated natural sounds, herd bells and horn calls. "Nature is roaring here," he commented himself. The unusual number of five movements allows him to create a symmetrical structure: The large-scale first movement, characterized by March rhythms and concluding triumphantly, corresponds with a cheerful, bright rondo finale. The second and fourth movements are night music which frame a scherzo.

The premiere of the seventh symphony did not take place until three years after the work was completed: on September 19, 1908 in the concert hall of the Jubilee Exhibition in Prague. It was on the program of the tenth Philharmonic Concert to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I. Mahler - plagued by doubts about his work - worked on the orchestration until shortly before the performance. The premiere was a great success, which the Viennese premiere, which followed shortly afterwards, could not fully confirm could not fully confirm. The critical Viennese audience took offense primarily at the final movement; they saw the festively exaggerated jubilant song as a conscious or involuntary parody of the prelude to Richard Wagner's "Meistersinger von Nürnberg".