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The new recording by BR-KLASSIK of Mahler's First Symphony with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Mariss Jansons in 2007, is a recording premiere. This new release is thus aimed primarily at listeners eager to experience Mahler’s First Symphony under Mariss Jansons who would prefer to purchase the orchestral work separately from the audio biography. “The first symphony actually contains everything that will characterize him later on; here we can already hear the sounds of the life-melody that he brings to the highest fruition: the devotion to nature, and thoughts of death.” That was fellow composer Schoenberg’s verdict on Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Mahler had discovered this “life melody” before his symphonic debut, however, in his “Songs of a Wayfarer”. He used a part of them again for his Symphony No. 1 – a work which, at its premiere in 1889 in Budapest, was not as initially successful as he had hoped. As a result, in later performances, Mahler added programmatic explanations and the title “Titan”. After the composer had discarded a movement entitled Bluminenkapitel, or “Flower Chapter”, the symphony finally celebrated its triumph in the concert halls of the world without any title or programme, as a four-movement work. The Mahler tradition at the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks was established in the early 1960s with performances conducted by Rafael Kubelik, and the symphonies by the Late Romantic composer on the threshold of modernity have been part of the orchestra’s fixed repertoire ever since.