Orozco-Estrada conducts Dvorák and Mahler | London Philharmonic Orchestra

It all began here: Mahler’s journey through a series of symphonies that represents his own spiritual biography. In his amazingly confident First Symphony of 1889 Mahler sought to lay his experiences and suffering out for all to hear. The Symphony was cast in two parts: first the optimism and energy of youth; then the crisis of rejection and death. Yet it powers towards an exultant conclusion, overtly popular in style and suddenly imbued with a new confidence – confidence in life itself. This opening to Mahler’s extraordinary world is heard here after the concerto Antonín Dvorák believed ‘outstrips the other two concertos of mine’, his bewitching B minor Cello Concerto.