Minnesota Orchestra Releases Recording of Mahler's Seventh Symphony

BIS Records and the Minnesota Orchestra release sixth disc in Mahler symphonies recording project 

Today, the Swedish label BIS Records releases the latest album in the Minnesota Orchestra’s ongoing Gustav Mahler symphonies recording series—a recording of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, conducted by Music Director Osmo Vänskä. The album is available for purchase now on the Minnesota Orchestra’s website, minnesotaorchestra.org, and digitally worldwide.

Mahler’s Seventh Symphony depicts an epic voyage from night to day across five movements. It opens with a massive, forceful storm, followed by three central movements that offer hopeful faces of the night, and concludes with a grandiose finale that delivers a rush of incandescent energy. In the upcoming weeks, the Minnesota Orchestra will be offering regular opportunities to learn more about Mahler’s Seventh Symphony through interviews, instrument demonstrations and videos across its digital platforms.

This is the sixth release in the Orchestra’s project to record and release all ten of Mahler’s symphonies. It was recorded in November 2018 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. The Orchestra’s recording of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony received a 2018 Grammy nomination for Best Orchestral Performance. Vänskä and the Orchestra have also released acclaimed recordings of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony; Second Symphony, Resurrection; First Symphony, Titan; and Fourth Symphony. The Orchestra has also recorded Mahler’s Tenth Symphony for a future release. The project will continue with performances and recording sessions of the Third Symphony in March 2021 and the Ninth Symphony in June 2021, the latter of which was originally scheduled for June 2020, but was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The BIS team, led by producer Robert Suff, recorded this album as a Super Audio CD (SACD), using surround sound recording technology to reproduce the sound of the concert hall as faithfully as possible. BIS Hybrid SACDs are playable on all standard CD players. Further information about the Minnesota Orchestra’s recordings on the BIS Records label can be found on the BIS website, www.bis.se.

Minnesota Orchestra Recording History

The Minnesota Orchestra, founded in 1903 as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, issued its first recording in 1924 and has since recorded more than 450 works, with Osmo Vänskä leading a particularly rich period of recording since his tenure began in 2003. The Orchestra’s Sibelius Symphonies cycle received critical praise, and the second recording in the cycle—featuring the First and Fourth Symphonies—won the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. In 2016, Vänskä and the Orchestra released a live-in-concert recording featuring Sibelius’ five-part symphonic poem Kullervo and his beloved Finlandia, plus Finnish composer Olli Kortekangas’ Migrations, a new work commissioned by the Orchestra. Other recordings by Vänskä and the Orchestra include two albums of Beethoven and Mozart piano concertos featuring Yevgeny Sudbin; a two-disc Tchaikovsky set featuring pianist Stephen Hough; and a widely-praised cycle of the complete Beethoven symphonies. The Orchestra is also featured on a recording released by Doomtree Records in November 2019: Sound the Bells, a live-in-concert album spotlighting singer-rapper-writer Dessa in a performance of her music arranged by Andy Thompson, recorded live at Orchestra Hall in March 2019 under the baton of Sarah Hicks.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 7
(BIS SACD-2386)

Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor

MAHLER         Symphony No. 7

Available for purchase now at minnesotaorchestra.org. As a thank-you to the Minnesota Orchestra audience, the first 100 CDs available for purchase online have been signed by Music Director Osmo Vänskä.

For press copies, currently available only in a digital format, please contact:

Emma Plehal, Communications Manager                                   
eplehal@mnorch.org 

The Minnesota Orchestra recognizes the Douglas and Louise Leatherdale Fund for Music for supporting the work of Osmo Vänskä.

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