Berliner Philharmoniker
Gustav Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1–10

Daniel Harding
Symphony No. 1

Andris Nelsons
Symphony No. 2

Gustavo Dudamel
Symphony No. 3

Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Symphony No. 4

Gustavo Dudamel
Symphony No. 5

Kirill Petrenko
Symphony No. 6

Sir Simon Rattle
Symphony No. 7

Sir Simon Rattle
Symphony No. 8

Bernard Haitink
Symphony No. 9

Claudio Abbado
Symphony No. 10 (Adagio)

L’Orchestre National de Lille (ONL) performed its first concert in 1976 under the baton of Jean-Claude Casadesus, who retired as music director in 2016. Since then, French conductor Alexandre Bloch has taken the reins. Bloch’s career is impressive; he is principal guest conductor for the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker (2015) and winner of the LSO Donatella Flick Conducting Competition (2012). Bloch has recorded 3 albums with the ONL, all for Alpha Classics: works by Ravel, Chausson and the recording reviewed here, Mahler Symphony No. 7 (2020). The ONL was also shortlisted for the Gramophone Classical Music Awards ‘Orchestra of the Year’ in 2020. A good pairing to take on a highly complicated symphony.

Mahler’s Seventh: The enigmatic symphony.

It’s been only a few years since I started listening to Mahler, although it does feel much longer. My first experience with Mahler, was with the First Symphony, under the direction of Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. I was confused about what I was listening to, those first notes of expanding, sustained high As. Nature sounds from a symphony I hadn’t heard before—a clarinet cuckoo call, a free fall of dangerous notes. It was an amazing moment. By the third movement, I was completely hypnotized—this is the ‘Mahler Effect’.