McGill, Mahler and Montreal

This film is a record of a major musical event -- a performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony -- a tribute to Canada's oldest university and an evocation of a famous city. When he was a young man, Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) wrote to a friend, "Now I am lost to the world but in fifty years they will play my symphonies as they now play Beethoven." Today the music of this Austrian composer speaks to us all as never before. It is particularly fitting that in one of the most historic and beautiful cities in North America, young musicians - students of McGill University's Music School and members of its remarkable orchestra - should be playing Mahler's symphonies. This film explores both the emotional and technical challenges in creating a performance of the Fifth Symphony. "It is so hard. You have to train like an athlete to play Mahler," a young violinist says. "But when it all comes together it is magic."