Ever since the young Rafael Kubelik became acquainted with the music of Gustav Mahler - primarily through conductors such as Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber and Fritz Busch - his fascination with it never again left him alone. He pressed forward with the Mahler Renaissance in post-war Germany as one of its main protagonists against the initially reserved attitude of the public and critics. In Munich, he realised one of the first complete Mahler cycles. The fruitful collaboration over many decades between Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra reached unique high points in Mahler's symphonies again and again. Mahler's Fifth Symphony appears here in a live recording from the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz made on 12 June 1981.