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Simon Gaudenz conducts the Jenaer Philharmonic Orchestra in the first of a series of recordings of the complete Mahler Symphonies, interspersed with world-premiere recordings of pieces by Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini that reflect each symphony and pay homage to Mahler’s soundworld. This first release features Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, the Fourth preceded by Scartazzini’s Incantesimo (2020) for soprano and orchestra, and the Fifth by Einklang (2021). Mahler’s symphonies represent an extraordinary body of work, and it is fascinating to hear them contrasted and commented upon by a new piece specially created to shed light on or pay tribute to that symphony. Since 2018, Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini has been Composer-in-Residence with the Jena Philharmonic, in which role he has been writing these new companion pieces to each of Mahler’s symphonies, which are being performed in Jena as a cycle in chronological order. This collaboration over a period of seven years is remarkable in many respects. At the end of the cycle there will be 10 new works, each of which can be performed individually or in groups before the Mahler symphonies, but also as full-length concert works. Scartazzini has been passionately committed to the task from the beginning, especially as Mahler's music is particularly close to his heart: "I have a deep love for the work of Gustav Mahler; his symphonies have been my musical companions for many years, and every time I hear them again I am moved by the sheer abundance of inspiration and emotionality," he wrote at the start of the cycle. Now, halfway through the premieres, Scartazzini speaks of how the renewed engagement with Mahler's work has influenced his own language and compositional style, for never before, he says, has he composed so close to tonality. "The constant preoccupation with Mahler's symphonies must lead me down new paths, because there is always so much to discover in this cosmos”.