Gardner, Persson, Gruber / Gruber, Mahler by Gruber, H. K., Mahler, T 24 okt 2018, No (2018/2018), Diriģents Edward Gardner, Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria

“The man who rescued opera” was the title of a portrait of the British conductor Edward Garner by The Independent in 2009. What seemed like a rhetorical hyperbole from a Central European point of view, actually made literal sense from the perspective of the inhabitants of the British Isles: In 2005, Gardner took over the position of music director of the English National Opera and brought back the flagship of British musical life, rolling yet again at that time, onto a sustainably successful artistic track. Since his departure from London in 2015, Gardner also increasingly made a name for himself as a conductor. After performances with, inter alia, the New York Philharmonic, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Deutschen Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Gardner will now make his debut with the Wiener Symphoniker with traditional concerts on the national holiday. Commensurate with the occasion, along with Gustav Mahler’s slender Fourth Symphony, this year will bear another testimony to the lively diversity of contemporary Austrian music: HK Gruber’s legendary Frankenstein!!