Mahler: Symphony No. 5

The Fifth is a cursed work. Nobody gets the point of it. That was Gustav Mahler's frustrated comment on the performance of his latest work in 1905 in Hamburg, where as former opera director he should have been able to count on staunch support. This is now rather surprising in view of the fact that the Fifth is today one of the most popular of all Mahler's symphonies. Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Cologne leads his orchestra in this performance of Mahler’s grand orchestral statement of transition from the depths of funereal gloom to heights of triumphal joy.