Minnesota Orchestra Releases Recording of Mahler's Tenth Symphony

Music Director Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra announce the release of the newest album in the ongoing Gustav Mahler symphonies recording series-featuring Mahler's Tenth Symphony, recorded at Orchestra Hall in June 2019 by Swedish label BIS Records. The album will be released worldwide on Friday, February 5, 2021, and will be available for advance purchase on Monday, February 1, 2021, on the Minnesota Orchestra's website, minnesotaorchestra.org. The first 250 copies purchased through the Orchestra online will be signed by Music Director Osmo Vänskä.

Mahler's Tenth Symphony, left unfinished at his death but subsequently completed in this performance version by Deryck Cooke, follows the composer's philosophy that a symphony "must embrace everything"-from anguish to exuberance and serenity. An autobiographical work of extraordinary turmoil and beauty, the Tenth Symphony includes a wide-ranging Adagio that builds to a nightmarish dissonance, a brief "Purgatorio" composed after Mahler discovered his wife Alma's affair, and a tender finale that shows the composer's undimmed love for Alma.

This is the seventh album in the Orchestra's project to record and release the Mahler symphonies. It was recorded in June 2019 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis and was conducted by Music Director Osmo Vänskä. The Orchestra's recording of Mahler's Fifth Symphony received a 2018 Grammy nomination for Best Orchestral Performance. Mr. Vänskä and the Orchestra have also released acclaimed recordings of Mahler's Sixth Symphony; Second Symphony, Resurrection; First Symphony, Titan; Fourth Symphony and Seventh Symphony.

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, Mr. 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 Mr. 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-2396)

Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor

MAHLER Symphony No. 10 (ed. Deryck Cooke)

Available for purchase now at minnesotaorchestra.org. As a thank-you to the Minnesota Orchestra audience, the first 250 CDs available for purchase online have been signed by Music Director Osmo Vänskä. Limit one signed copy per household.

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