Rondo Burleske

Mahler was at the height of his powers when he wrote his 9th Symphony in 1909 declaring 'I am thirstier for life than ever'! His great admirer Alban Berg thought it "the expression of an unheard love for this earth and the longing to live in place upon her......before death comes". Indeed Leonard Bernstein described each movement as a 'farewell', and the third (Rondo Burleske) as a particular farewell to urban society. The Rondo Burleske appears as the second scherzo of the symphony. In character it is at first sprightly then suddenly hysterical and finally demonic. The 'burlesque' element reflects the reality and grotesqueness of the city culture surely referencing the extremes of Mahler's own artistic experience in Vienna. In this transcription Gorb faithfully represents the exhilarating character and textures of Mahler's writing lending his own imaginative flair for colour to the orchestration and in doing so triumphantly bringing Mahler's artistic achievement to the wind orchestra repertory.