Mahler completed his first symphony at the age of 24 and the work was considered a remarkable achievement, especially for someone so young. The symphony was originally conceived as a tone poem in the form of a symphony. Mahler drew inspiration from nature and described the epic final movement as a journey ‘from inferno to paradise’.

Concert Reviews:

‘…a riveting performance of the composer’s Symphony No. 1… vital, reckless and thrilling. In the first movement, the feint skein of vibrato-free violins seemed not so much to have started as to have been there all along, unheard, part of a sublime landscape in which Gergiev acted as cinematographer, zooming in to the dense forest of clarinets, then swooping down to a meadow of silken cellos… the sinus-clearing shriek of the last movement was one of the most exciting things I’ve heard from the LSO.’

The Independent on Sunday (UK)

‘…an exercise in barely suppressed hysteria, brilliantly illuminated by the LSO woodwinds. Most conductors permit a sense of spatial grandeur as the close approaches. Gergiev was unremitting; aggression and dissonance held the stage at the very end. If you like your Mahler visceral, spine-tingling and dangerous, this was for you… the LSO are certainly playing out of their skins for Gergiev.’

The Guardian (UK)

‘He makes all the right noises, he applies the appropriate rubatos, and generates tremendous excitement. There were passages – not least in the tempestuous finale – where the smouldering figurations of the LSO strings could have generated power for a small nation.’

The Independent (UK)