Originalklang-Project 2024

The Busoni-Mahler Foundation in Bolzano presents the Originalklang-Project of the Mahler Academy Orchestra: under the direction of Philipp von Steinaecker, Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony will be performed on period instruments for the first time since the time of it’s composition. Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto will also receive it’s first performance on original instruments, with soloist Leif Ove Andsnes playing on a historical Steinway. Rachmaninov chose an identical instrument for his legendary New York performance of the concerto in 1910 under the direction of Gustav Mahler.

The Mahler Academy Orchestra’s Originalklang-Project sheds new light on the performance practice of Mahler’s time. For this unique project, the young artists of the Gustav Mahler Academy meet 55 musicians from Europe’s top ensembles. In Dobbiaco, where Mahler wrote his last works and under the direction of Philipp von Steinaecker they bring the music of the turn of the century to new life on historical instruments. To make the project possible, the Euregio Cultural Centre Dobbiaco Foundation has created a collection that unites the instruments used by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra around 1900.

The Mahler Academy Orchestra is part of the Gustav Mahler Academy Bolzano-Bozen, which was founded by Claudio Abbado to create a place where 45 exceptionally talented young musicians from all over the world receive decisive impulses for their entire musical lives under ideal conditions. In close collaboration with outstanding teachers and soloists, they work on their individual playing as well as their skills as chamber musicians in order to transfer the highly dialogical playing style they learn to the orchestra. In recent years, the Mahler Academy Orchestra has been conducted by Daniel Harding, Pablo Heras Casado, Lahav Shani and Mark Minkowski.

For the Mahler Academy Orchestra’s Originalklang-Project 2024, the young musicians of the Gustav Mahler Academy will be joined by instrumentalists from the following ensembles:
Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia – AnimAeterna – Artemis Quartet – Bayerisches Staatsorchester – Berliner Philharmoniker – B-Rock – Camerata Salzburg – Concertgebouw Orkest Amsterdam – Czeck Philharmonic – Dortmunder Philharmoniker – Leipziger Streichquartett – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino – Mahler Chamber Orchestra – NDR Radiophilharmonie – Nederlands Radio Orkest – Oper Zürich – Orchestre de Paris – Orquesta de Galicia – Royal Stockholm Philharmonic – Slovenska Filharmonija – Staatskapelle Dresden – Staatsorchester Kassel – Staatstheater Halle – Teatro Massimo Palermo – WDR Symphonieorchester – Wiener Symphoniker.

The Originalklang-Project of the Gustav Mahler Academy is a co-production between the Busoni-Mahler Foundation Bolzano and the Euregio Cultural Centre Dobbiaco Foundation.

“The Gustav Mahler Academy plays a very important role in the Italian and European cultural scene (…)
offering many musicians a truly significant artistic opportunity.”

(Claudio Abbado)

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The Mahler Academy Orchestra is part of the Gustav Mahler Academy Bolzano-Bozen. The Academy was founded in 1999 by Claudio Abbado to create a place where exceptionally talented young musicians from throughout the world could be exposed in ideal conditions to musical stimuli that would be decisive for the rest of their musical lives. They train in close collaboration with outstanding teachers and soloists not only as soloists but also as chamber musicians, through which they can transfer the highly rhetorical style of playing that they have learnt to their orchestral work.
The orchestra of the Gustav Mahler Academy is composed the students who attend the three-week masterclasses each year. The young musicians perform in symphonic concerts at the end of the courses. Since 1999, the Mahler Academy Orchestra has been conducted by Leopold Hager, Arnold Östmann, Dennis Russel-Davies, Gustav Kuhn, Christoph Müller, Daniel Harding, Matthias Pintscher, Lahav Shani and Pablo Heras-Casado and has performed at the Grand Hotel Toblach cultural centre, the Ferrara Municipal Theatre, the Teatro Sociale Rovigo, the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin, the Institute for Italian Culture in Budapest and with soloists such as Alexander Romanovsky, Christian Altenburger, Melvyn Tan, Alessio Allegrini, Kolja Blacher, Clemens Hagen and Stefan Dohr.