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Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 was not an immediate hit with the audience: its widely diverging moods met with a fair degree of incomprehension. Today, the sharp contrasts are considered typical of Mahler. He tried to capture the entire world in his ten symphonies, simultaneously forging a way for himself from Romanticism into modernity. His First Symphony certainly does not lack ambition. It opens peacefully, with various motifs unfurling slowly into a sublime evocation of nature. All the classic ingredients soon join the fray, with a Ländler, or Austrian peasant dance, the Frère Jacques melody in an unusual guise and the requisite dose of sarcasm. In the finale, human struggle is expressed in inimitable music. Who better than the impassioned Klaus Mäkelä to evoke Mahler’s unique universe?