In setting out to record the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler with the Dusseldorfer Symphoniker, Maestro Adam Fischer hoped to create something special with the ensemble. He hoped that conductor and musicians would mutually inspire one another, not creating Fischer's Mahler, but rather "our" Mahler. Fischer writes of this process: "Whenever I conduct Mahler, I attempt to find a way to formulate each symphony's world and it's emotional content in a way that I can apprehend. Out of the music, I spin stories for myself... It is the result of a long process, in the course of which I ensure that the scores become my innermost conviction. In my view, this is the conductor's task. It is exactly the opposite of "work-to-rule."