Description:

Maestro Eschenbach's multi-season traversal of the Mahler symphonies comes to a close with the nocturnal Seventh, an elusive, freewheeling masterpiece too infrequently heard. Composed in 1904-05, it flanks a ghostly central scherzo with two ethereal slow movements called Nachtmusik (Night Music). Scored for a sizeable orchestra that includes mandolin and guitar, this harrowing symphonic journey contains some of the most scintillating instrumental effects of Mahler's output, and it sports a boisterous finale that Mahler scholar Henri-Louis de La Grange called "the most insane, most 'deviant' and most provocative of all his final movements."