Mahler 4 in small ensemble

Mahler's Fourth Symphony as chamber music? That is what the innovative LUDWIG collective has in store. The Fourth is the most accessible of Mahler's symphonies. It opens with the rural tinkling of sleigh bells. With the slow movement, Mahler delivered some of his finest pages, which are not inferior to the Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony. And the work ends with a soprano solo, 'Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden', which describes the convivial company of saints and angels in heaven, seen through the eyes of a child. Mahler wrote for it: 'with childlike, cheerful expression, without parody'. Conductor Antal Doráti once aptly described the Finale as 'a Sunday morning in heaven'.