“What a world this is that brings forth such sounds and shapes as its reflected likeness!” Gustav Mahler

 

Vision Mahler, the abstract visualization of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor (the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony), premièred on January 1, 2006 in Cologne at a gala concert staged to celebrate the 50th anniversary of WDR, a western German public broadcasting company. The work was performed under the direction of Semyon Bychkov before a live audience in Cologne’s Philharmonic Hall and simulcast on TV. 

 

Special projections allow eighteen 3D objects to mirror the emotions and feelings conjured up by this powerful music. The thematic junctures and stages of the Symphony – suffering, romanticism, irony, love, doubt and hope—are  orrelated to the transformation of these virtual objects. In the first movement, for example, objects assemble, form structures and then break down; in the second movement they dance, radiate and shine; the third movement infuses the forms with irony and distorts them; love is aglow with light in the fourth movement, and is succeeded in the fifth by tremors and destruction. Not until the finale does redemption make its appearance – everything shimmers, sails and floats away.

 

Preset camera paths along with special glasses help give the television audience the illusion of a spatial expansion of the TV image. Thus, a visualization of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony from several different angles is made available to the TV viewing audience.

 

Live from the Philharmonie Cologne, 1st January 2006

3D Visualisation by Johannes Deutsch and Ars Electronica Futurelab Linz

 

Bonus Material:
Making of 'Vision of Mahler'/ Interview with Seymon Bychkov / “Facedream” by Johannes Deutsch

 

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
Menu Languages: GB, D, FR, ES
Running Time: 87 mins + 48 mins Bonus Material
DVD 9 NTSC
Region Code: 0