Simon Russell Beale, Philharmonia Voices, Esa-Pekka Salonen

Mahler’s First Symphony isn’t just the opening chapter of the composer’s spiritual autobiography, it’s also an awakening in itself. From hushed strings and woodwind cuckoos, it breaks into a forthright stride towards, eventually, a blazing affirmation of camaraderie and confidence.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the symphony here with his own Philharmonia Orchestra, following meditations on loss from Arnold Schoenberg and centenary composer Henri Dutilleux, whose The Shadows of Time was inspired by the diaries of Anne Frank and written to mark 50 years since the end of the Second World War.