David H Spence
Here was the first of two valedictory statements on the lengthiest respectively of Mahler and Bruckner symphonies at the 2007 proms. After hearing the Brahms G Major sextet, so pointedly, expressively flooded with most febrile nuance, I came to the Mahler feeling so assured that the forces of the Lucerne Festival were on a roll for their visit here.I have yet, though, to find the Third Symphony to be among Abbado’s more convincing Mahler interpretations. Thankfully long by now he has abandoned his overly finicky, underlined approach as we all heard on his Vienna DGG account of the early 1980’s. Pacing is certainly much more direct than it was then. Just partly due to some awkwardness in matching timbre and even intonation between sections of his multinational forces here, the first movement got to a rather soggy start, as though a thaw had begun to set in before the trombone, as ‘roar of Nature’ could invoke all to life. Later solos for principal trombone, then from winds and horns emerged with greater expressive naturalness. An uncertain angst, restraint seemed to pervade even more joyous sections of the long first movement, noting nothing short of the Brucknerian weight imparted to some of the climaxes within. After fine display of the Rabble, the storm came across as displaying virtuosity for its own sake, as happens way too often with this passage.The most mercurial passagework in the second movement freed things up to the point that we could enjoy summer’s pleasures therein unencumbered. Abbado’s lingering over full-bodied writing in the strings for first-subject episodes, though, sounded layered on. Abbado found his first unqualified success in the third movement, except for a moment of what sounded like doubled brass parts (to unpleasantly remind one of Masur’s misguidedly too doubled Bruckner Seventh a few weeks before). All unbuttoned bucolic mirth, wit was on full display here, no less than in Mahler’s send-up on the trio to the Scherzo of Beethoven’s Fifth. Posthorn solos were sweet, with pianissimo french horn section accompaniment at which to marvel. Abbado’s rapt command of the accompaniment to Nietzche was most authoritative, but Anna Larsson’s ripe, edgy, fruity delivery of the text robbed the music of mystery, bar one or two moments in the second verse that she effectively scaled her voice down to pianissimo.Getting past an ungainly performance of the brief choral movement from all involved, we arrived at as deeply blissful an Adagio as we should ever hope to hear. Flute solos and pianissimo french horns were exceptional, but it was perhaps the Lucerne strings most of all that carried the day, so suffused with light and carrying the message most effectively that it is only through so much anguish, suffering that we can attain true joy and transfiguration. Abbado perhaps had attempted to ready us early on thus with the first movement, even if therein the message came across a bit confused or mixed. All was clear and clearly upon the greatest heights for a resounding close to the Adagio and this prom.

Martin Spiteri(Malta)
I am listening many times to this performance through a digital satellite radio recording which was kindly uploaded to Yahoo OperaShare at 192 kbps. There is no doubt that this performance will soon be achieving a legendary status. I think the best possible audio/video recording will be highly appreciated by Mahler lovers.

Roy Terry
I watched the orchestra's performance in Lucerne on French TV and the quality and intelligence of the camera work put the BBC's televising of concerts to shame. It was a pleasure to be rid of announcers who shout their views at you the moment the performance ends.

Masakatsu Shibuya from Japan
I truly appreciate this BBC's wonderful broadcasting service via the internet. I've already listened to PROM 51 which I was most interested in for this year for several times. I could listen to PROMS concerts live in London back in 2003, but I haven't got the chance to be back there since then. Mahler Symphony No.3 was the one my father listened to for the very last time when he passed away in his bed right in front of me last summer. So it "is" very special to me. Again, thank you very much indeed for the service and thank Claudio and Lucerne Orchestra also for the touching performance.

John Purchase
Thank you BBC for making this wonderful concert available to download. A magical concert and one to remember for a very long time. What playing and what a conductor!! I agree with CB and I am glad to have the Horenstein 3rd symphony on vinyl ... but I will look forward to Abbado / LFO on CD soon.

Carol Stokes
I listened to the performance on line from Perth Western Australia. Oh! what a treat. Subliminal. I can only imagine how moved the audience must have felt. Please, BBC release this as a recording.

S M Jordan
This was certainly one of the big highlights of the Proms this year and has proved to be one indeed. Ever since I heard one of Mahler's Symphonies by this orchestra ( conducted by Abbado of course)on CD, I wanted to hear the orchestra perform it on live. I am grateful that I got a chance to hear them and Abbado perform Mahler again. They have played Mahler's 3rd Symphony with such vigour and love and I am sure on this night all the audience ( whether or not they are familier with Mahler's music) felt vibrant power within the work by listening to them as the medium. This is what a combination of great orchestran and conductor would bring - a true spiritual euphoria through music.

Joris Peters from the Netherlands
This was the second PROMS concert I ever attended and I must admit that it is probably the most intense and magical concert I ever witnessed.Abbado's absolute and all-encompassing knowledge of the score coupled to brilliant playing and singing of all involved brought out each and every detail in this immense symphony. The end of the finale left me with a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. I'm almost afraid to listen to any recording of this symhony again lest the magic of this performance will be broken...

Robert J Parry, Great Yarmouth
Why was this great performance not televised? It seems rather perverse and arbitary that mid week proms are not televised-is there a reason for this?

Jos Janssen, 's Gravenvoeren, Belgium
I've just returned from London proms where I saw Claudio conduct a fabulous Mahler third. How many faboulous chamber-music-like qualities he found in this score with his brilliant orchestra, i can't even begin to sum up. Think of the barely audible start of the fourth movement, think of the careful way conflicting rythms were put together in the first, think of the the magical harp entries in the third, and so on and so on. Nothing of the massiveness and nowhere-to-go juxtaposing others bring here, but a most impressive sense of direction, carefully weighted climaxes, crescendos and diminuendos. This is what intelligent music making is about ! Having said that, the emotional impact of the music is delivered just because it is in the notes (or rather not in the notes) as Gustav himself would say. No reason to impose it, it's there already. What a night.....

John Martin
I was there that night and too thought it a magnificent evening. The reception rivalled that of the Bolivar night! What a pity it was not televised. I can understand that BBC must ration its broadcasts bust this was obviously going to be one of the highlights of the season for three reasons: Mahler, the Lucerne orchestra and Abbado.

Jonathan Dorsch, San Francisco
I thought I would never hear a better peformance of any Mahler work after hearing live Walter, Bernstein and Solti (with the CSO).This was a stunning performance that took my breath away, reminding me of those nights I attended the Chicago Symphony first with up to Solti.Abaddo tonight reminded me of the exquisite power of Guilini: elegant and architecturally restrained, in command of Mahler's masterwork as it encompasses the composer's entire comos.As I've said before as a tribute to the BBC, I am grateful to Britain and the BBC to be able to hear such concerts. What a grand institution you have. Be proud!

Jan Renner, London/Berlin
That was a magnificient performance. I have followed Abbado during his wonderful 13 years in Berlin and some of his performances were just as unique and overwhelming as wednesday´s concert. However, since Abbado has left us in May 2002, performances of such a unique quality (which we have taken for granted over decades) have become very rare, even in Berlin .Therefore, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to share this wonderful concert with you all at Royal Albert Hall.This may sound a little pessimistic, but I cannot think of any conductor who will ever close the gap Abbado has left in Berlin.

Margherita Parise
after having heard on live in lucerne mahlers third symphonie even our internetlistening from the proms will stay the most perfect and emotionel performance from all three evenings. thank you proms for this great event !

Matthew J. Hibberd
As one of those who greeted Abbado with bravo before Wednesday night's performance, I too had very high hopes for this concert. For those of us fortunate enough to have seen Abbado conduct in Italy and Switzerland in the past few years, we have been treated to many, many fantastic and memorable performances. And Wednesday night's was no exception. The Royal Albert Hall might lack the acoustic refinement of the Lucerne Concert Centre, but there are few places that can generate such an atmosphere, air of expectation or sense of occasion. Wednesday night's concert will long live in the memory of those who were there. Abbado is an international treasure and long may that continue. Thank you BBC for bringing the Lucerne Festival Orchestra over.

Christopher Bayne
What a privilege to hear such an amazing performance. We can find performances of this wonderful symphony quite often now. However, we should remember that it was quite out of fashion and hardly ever performed before the mid 1960s when Norman del Mar reintroduced it to a half empty Royal Festival Hall!

Frank Ainger in the provinces but was there.
This symphony needs a great conductor to unravel Mahler's complicated thoughts which inspired the work. Tonight it happened with some of the finest orchestral playing inspired by a non-demonstrative conductor who really understands the score back to front.Jascha Horenstein and Lenny Bernstein are the only conductors who came close to Abbado interpretation. Please book the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for Proms 2008,2009...

Janey
Outstanding. An emotional roller coaster.

Steve Pat Evans
An excellent performance, from an orchestra on top form. The first and sixth movements in particular will linger long in the memory. The clarity of the playing was outstanding. Abbado put in some interesting interpretations at several points.It deservedly got many 'bravos' from the audience.

Paul Pellay
What an orchestra!A very beautiful and poetic performance, I thought. If parts of it felt a little restrained, it is clear that Abbado wanted to ensure that the work's real peaks truly registered: amongst others, the close of the first movement, the third movement's momentary "panic" near the end, and the whole of the last movement, which flowed and breathed with a natural inevitability I had rarely heard before in this work. What a contrast to Welser-Most's bloodless and over-manicured Prom from a couple of years ago!

Robert Swinhoe
What an extraodinary event this was! Before the concert began the atmosphere in the hall was electric and the concert fufiiled everyone's expectations. Claudio Abbado (without any manuscripts on the podium) proved once again what a superb master he is of Gustav Mahler's Symphonies. The playing was quite astounding with the principal horn, trombone and trumpet all at the peak of their form. Mind you any orchestra that has the incomparable Sabine Meyer as the principal Clarinet would have to be oustanding.At the end the cheers ran round and round the hall with no one wanting it to finish. Anna Larsson, the Trinity Boys' Choir and the LSO Symphony Chorus were quite magnificent. I have seen many proms over the years but this will live long in the memory. The only negative note is the fact that BBC decided not to make this concert a tv broadcast. What an opportunity lost to bring this wonderful event to many millions!

John Connell
An incisive, polished, at times gripping account. Abaddo was patrician, mindfully involved. The playing was committed and delightfully European in parts - cow-bell Mahlerian. For me Larsson stole the show with an imperious reading of the terrirfying Nietzsche text. I was both heart-scalded and lifted to cloud like heights by this performance of Mahler's great more than symphony.

Shiraiso
What an honour to have witnessed what was, for me, the musical moment of the entire season - I can forget everything else now. Lucerne players performed magnificent, Anna Larsson was great, and Claudio Abbado - well, how privileged to see him conduct. Super night.

Bryan Armour
Such a special experience to hear this sublime work being performed by players of the highest caliber conducted by an inspirational Mahlerian. Thank you Proms for including a beautifual traditional work. Is there a chance of a BBC4 programme to let those of us who could not get seats share it?

Christian Hoskins
I had high hopes for this concert, as did most of the audience: Abbado was greeted with "Bravos" from the audience before the concert even started. Within a minute of two of the music starting, it was clear were in for something special. The orchestra was tonally magnificent. Climaxes were superbly paced and tremendously exciting. Individual solos were beautifully played. One had the sense the orchestra were listening to each other almost as much as they were following their distinguished music director. The power and atmosphere of the first movement was conveyed vividly. I normally find the second movement of this symphony a slight anticlimax, but Abbado and his orchestra brought every facet of the music to life. The other inner movements were equally splendid, with a deeply moving posthorn solo. Only at the beginning of the finale did a miss a sense of raptness in the playing, partly as a result of the relatively fast tempo. I don’t think sustained slow movements are Abbado’s thing, since his live 1999 recording is similarly fast. However, the climaxes once again were magnificent, and the ending was glorious. We ended up giving a standing ovation.