One of the greatest pleasures of Gustav Mahler’s ten symphonies is how malleable they are, how wide a range of interpretive possibilities they open to the orchestras and conductors who dare to tackle them.

We’ve come a long way indeed from critic Paul Rosenfeld’s memorable 1922 characterisation of Mahler’s symphonies as “monuments of anguished aborted life, like indeed to torture-masses devised by the imagination of a ferocious medieval god for the punishment of transgressors against him".
 
Just as the composer’s 150th Birthday last July set off a worldwide Mahler frenzy, the 100th anniversary of his death, on May 18, has sparked a new wave of concerts.

In Berlin, Claudio Abbado paid a visit to his old band, the Berliner Philharmoniker, for a performance of Das Lied von der Erde (with soloists Jonas Kaufman and Anne Sofie von Otter); the Konzerthausorchester invited Michael Gielen for an inspiring performance of the First, followed swiftly by the Fourth, conducted by Peter Ruzicka; and tomorrow evening, Daniel Barenboim will lead the Berlin Staatskapelle in the elegiac Ninth.

However, in a true rarity, the German capital couldn’t hold a candle to its smaller neighbour to the east, Leipzig, which is pulling out all the stops for its International Mahler Festival, which began on the eve of anniversary and runs until the 29th.

This complete overview of Mahler’s symphonies features a delirious array of top-notch orchestras (including three that Mahler himself led in performances of his own work) and an impressive assortment of supplementary lectures, artist interviews, film screenings and exhibitions. It is without a doubt the grandest gesture yet during these back-to-back anniversary seasons. Then again, that Leipzig should enjoy such an honour doesn’t seem entirely unfair; this eminently musical city did indeed play a crucial role in Mahler’s development as a composer.   
 
Mahler himself was only 26 when he arrived in Leipzig in 1886 to serve as second Kapellmeister at the opera. Although his duties were focused squarely on the podium (he led a whopping 188 performances during his two-year stint here), it was in Leipzig that Mahler turned earnestly to symphonic composition. “It was in fact when he came to Leipzig that Mahler started to discover the symphonic universe of his own with the First Symphony,” explained Riccardo Chailly in his office at the Gewandhaus before the opening of the festival on May 17.
 
It was also in Leipzig that the composer deepened his exploration of Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the collection of poems that inspired much of his first four symphonies. During this period Mahler also became involved in completing Carl Maria von Weber’s unfinished opera Die Drei Pintos.

For Chailly the festival, curated by the Gewandhaus, is the fulfillment of a dream he has had ever since becoming the Gewandhausorchester’s musical director in 2005: “Since that time I really wished this Mahler festival to happen for the centenary of the death of Gustav Mahler but in particular to make known to the world that the roots of the Gewandhausorchester are linked directly with Mahler because of those years when he was here as a Second Kapellmeister”. Chailly enumerated some qualities his musicians brought to their reading of Mahler. “The sound, the colour of the Gewandhaus is one of the oldest. There is darkness but transparency at the same time, which is a unique, late romantic sound, which is perfectly born for these scores.”

These aspects certainly informed the Gewandhausorchester’s finely honed and heart-stopping performance of the Second. In the final movements, soloists Chrisiane Oelze and Sarah Connolly – both last-minute replacements – sang with accuracy and feeling, and were joined by the expertly prepared forces of the Berlin Radio Choir and MDR Radio Choir. 

Chailly seemed justifiably proud of the programme he had helped put together. “We have the most representative orchestras in the world which can prove how Mahler can also change relationships to his music according to on the sound identity of an orchestra, sound culture, sound tradition of an orchestra. And I think we’ve selected the most significant orchestras,” he claimed.

Looking at the line-up, it was hard to disagree: in addition to the appearances from the Gewandhaus Orchestera, the festival also welcomed the Staatskapelle Dresden and Esa-Pekka Salonen in the Third, the Bavarian Radio SO with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in the Seventh, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in the Fifth, the MDR SO led by Jun Märkl in the Tenth, the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev in the First, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Fabio Luisi in Das Lied von der Erde. 

And that was just the first week.

Yet to come are appearances by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and David Zinman (the Sixth), the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding (the Fourth), and the Vienna Philharmonic and Daniele Gatti (the Ninth). To cap the festival, Chailly and his band will reclaim the stage for three performances of the gargantuan Eighth.

“I’m very proud because in less than two weeks you can have all this, and the comparison is a healthy competition to everybody,” Chailly added with a smile.

International Mahler Festival Leipzig runs until May 29