Jan Michiels & Inge Spinette

 ‘‘I am thrice homeless: as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world.’ That is how Gustav Mahler once described his sense of Unheimlichkeit. Inspired by this existential homelessness, he searches in his Third Symphony for meaning and anchorage. Completely in line with other tormented composers of the Romantic era, he seeks and finds them in nature. In his Third Symphony Mahler consigns ‘what the meadow flowers tell me’ and ‘the creatures of the forest tell me’ to his music paper. It is no wonder then that he also draws inspiration from the texts of the Des Knaben Wunderhorn lieder, in which nature is so often a source of comfort. But here Mahler goes a step further. He seems to want to set the whole creation of the world to music. In the ascending steps of this symphony’s six movements he gives voice to the primal forces, flora, fauna, mankind, the angels and Godly love. This is music with an almost metaphysical scope: Mahler's way of coming to terms with life’s big questions. Josef von Wöss made an exceptional transcription of this monumental work for four-handed piano. In the hands of Jan Michiels and Inge Spinette, the mystery of nature unfolds.