People always say autumn is the best season in Beijing. And with the Beijing Music Festival scheduled for October, the town will become even more charming. This year's festival will be "mainly centered around late-Romantic Austrian composer Gustav Mahler's music," said Yu Long, the festival's artistic director at a press conference Friday morning.

Starting from October 6, there will be over 18 Mahler concerts staged in the town's various music halls and theaters in order to commemorate the centennial of the death of Gustav Mahler (1860- 1911). Apart from his complete symphonic output, his major vocal repertoire and early piano quartets will also be presented.

Although many musical giants' works have been staged at the music festivals, this is the first time the entire event will be devoted to staging the works of a single master. Numerous world-renowned musicians and orchestras, including maestros Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, and Yuri Temirkanov, will gather in Beijing to share Mahler with music fans. 

Mahler's 10 numbered symphonies reveal a three-decade span of his creative life, beginning in 1884. All 10 symphonies will be performed at the festival by the China Philharmonic Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
According to Yu, this year's festival, as with previous years, will also include a public education program that includes five pre-concert talks, four community outreach concerts and 11 master classes. Renowned maestros like Lan Shui, Eliahu Inbal and Daniel Harding will share their thoughts about Mahler's art and talk about the future of classical music.

The tickets for the upcoming festival will follow a low-price strategy, ranging from 50 to 180 yuan.