Most 19th century composers lived in the shadow of Beethoven, afraid to tackle the symphonic genre fearing that they would fall short of the composer’s radical Ninth. Not Mahler. In his First Symphony, he enmeshed his interests in philosophy, art, and literature, creating a brilliant, constantly-shifting collage of emotions and extra-musical references. In this superior recording, the vigorous Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin fuses his own intuitions with the powerful, Germanic sensibilities of the Munich-based Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, producing a decidedly electric version of Mahler’s fantastic early work.