In 2011, the Gustav Mahler Festival brought together professional classic singing with electronic visualisation and, through the combination of classic music and digital moving images, created a new form of artistic expression, bringing classic music closer to people. The audio-visual results of this experiment are documented in two different media: seven DVDs and a book. Mahler’s source of inspiration, nature, also inspired the opulent, abstract floral collages, which, exclusively in black-and-white, run throughout the entire design, echoing the essential quality of musical composition: compression and emotion, drama and reduction. The aesthetics of “colourlessness” additionally provides space for the imagery of the artists and for the music. Featuring the same reduced design, a book with selected texts, a detailed backstage photo gallery with portraits of the artists and numerous production details complement this edition in a slipcase.
Statement by the jury
»This work presents a fantastic visual solution for a DVD edition. With extraordinary images of plants, it arouses curiosity, puzzles and thus involves recipients. The different photo series and the austere and calm layout combine in a highly unexpected, innovative and sensitive manner with the music of Gustav Mahler.«