{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Conductor Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 on performing Mahler's Eighth at the 2025 Mahler Festival","description":"In May this year, the Concertgebouw \u2013 Amsterdam\u2019s legendary concert hall \u2013 played host to the 2025 Mahler Festival. Originally scheduled for 2000, the centenary of the first such event, but moved back by five years due to the pandemic, the Mahler Festival saw all of Mahler\u2019s symphonies performed chronologically over two weeks, and performed by a handful of the world\u2019s great orchestras. The Eighth Symphony fell to the local band, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and their Chief Conductor Designate, Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4, who gave two performances, both of which were recorded. And that recording has just been released by Decca \u2013 digitally worldwide, with a CD version available in Japan and Korea to coincide with the orchestra's first tour of Asia with M\u00e4kel\u00e4 before Christmas. James Jolly caught up with Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 to talk about the conductor\u2019s continuing fascination with Mahler\u2019s music, and particularly with the Eighth Symphony, the performances of which were clearly a highpoint in the conductor\u2019s career so far. ","author_name":"Gramophone Classical Music Podcast","author_url":"https:\/\/www.gramophone.co.uk\/podcast","html":"