Conducting Mahler

At the Mahler festival in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw last year the complete works of this composer were performed in seventeen days. On that occasion filmmaker Frank Scheffer talked with participating conductors, like Bernhard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti and Simon Rattle. They give evidence of their fascination with this composer, their motives for conducting his music and the interpretation problems that this can produce. These conversations are interlaced with fragments from rehearsals by orchestras like the Concertgebouworkest, the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker that bring Mahler's music to life. Although every conductor has his own style, their interpretations are in the end not really dissimilar.