'Songs with Orchestra' Completes Michael Tilson Thomas & San Francisco Symphony's Mahler Recording Cycle

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Available on CD September 14th and from iTunes on August 31st

The San Francisco Symphony’s Grammy®-winning Mahler recording cycle, launched in 2001 on its own SFS Media™ label, comes to a close this season with the release of Mahler’s Songs with Orchestra on CD September 14 and by download from the iTunes Store on August 31. Songs with Orchestra features Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas leading the Orchestra and Susan Graham performing Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. Thomas Hampson and the Orchestra contribute performances of Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer) and selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Rückert-Lieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen were both recorded live at Davies Symphony Hall during the SFS’s three-week Mahler Festival in September 2009. The selected songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with MTT, Hampson and the Orchestra were recorded at Davies Symphony Hall in May 2007. The release coincides with worldwide celebration of the music of Mahler: 2010 is the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth, and 2011 marks the 100th year of Mahler’s death. The SFS and Michael Tilson Thomas, among the world’s leading interpreters of Mahler’s music, will play a significant role in the global commemoration of Mahler, through concerts, extensive media projects, and prominent international tour performances.

The SFS Media Mahler cycle has won seven Grammy Awards, including three for Best Classical Album. In January, its September 2009 release of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and the Adagio from Symphony No. 10 garnered three Grammys in the categories of Best Classical Album, Best Choral Performance, and Best Engineered Classical Album. The cycle has sold over 140,000 recordings.

The San Francisco Symphony will commemorate the completion of this ambitious recording cycle by introducing a complete CD Boxed Set and, for the collector, a limited deluxe vinyl edition. Further details about these collections will be forthcoming.

The release of Mahler’s Songs with Orchestra coincides with MTT and the San Francisco Symphony’s fall tour of Europe September 11-16 which includes performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 at the prestigious Lucerne Festival and in Turin, Italy. During May 2011 Tilson Thomas and the Orchestra perform Mahler’s Symphonies No. 2, 6 and 9 at Davies Symphony Hall and on tour in Europe including as part of a rare four-concert engagement at the famed Vienna Konzerthaus during the city’s commemoration of the Mahler anniversaries.

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