Opening Weekend Mahler's Second

Opening Weekend Mahler's Second "Resurrection"

Featured as part of the Classic Series

Friday September 26, 2008 8:00PM
Saturday September 27, 2008 8:00PM

The Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle
Learn more about this venue

Stefan Sanderling, conductor

Bowling Green State University Chorus,
Suzanna Guzman, Mezzo soprano
Rachele Gilmore, Soprano
Bluffton University Chorus,
Heidelberg Concert Choir,
Ohio Northern University Chorus,

Description:

A concert experience unlike any other. The Toledo Symphony performs with 350 performers - its largest force!

“There is a world of difference between a Mahler eighth note and a normal eighth note.”
-Gustav Mahler

From the music of the funeral bier, composed in the wake of a doomed love affair, to the music of resurrection and spiritual affirmation, every note of Mahler’s Second Symphony courses with the awareness of death, the possibility of the afterlife, and the vitality of what it means to be truly human.

Celebrate the sixty-fifth birthday of the Toledo Symphony with Gustav Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, a triumphant paean to the power of the human spirit. Principal Conductor Stefan Sanderling and charismatic vocal soloists Rachele Gilmore and Suzanna Guzman are joined by the choruses of Bowling Green State University, Heidelberg College, Ohio Northern University and Bluffton University for this exceptional performance.

Points of interest:

· Though the title “Resurrection” has led many to associate this Symphony with Easter, Mahler’s concept of Resurrection is probably more personal. In notes that he wrote to accompany the music, Mahler indicated that this Symphony is in some ways a sequel to his First (the Titan, which opened the Toledo Symphony’s sixty-fourth season). The hero’s journey that is described by the Titan comes to an end with the funeral rites that open the Second Symphony.

· However, the musical germ for the Second Symphony predates even the First. Mahler was initially more well-known as a conductor than as a composer. The composer Carl Maria von Weber’s grandson had approached Mahler to complete and present an opera conceived by his late grandfather. During the course of this work, Mahler fell in love with the young von Weber’s wife, Marion. After the successful premiere, Mahler gathered as many of the flowers as he could, arranged them on his bed, and laid down amongst them, imagining himself upon his funeral bier.

Performances honor the memory of Ellie Seifried.

Sponsored by Huntington

Program:

Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C Minor "Resurrection" 85'

                          I. Allegro maestoso
                         II. Andante moderato
                        III. In sehr ruhig fliessender Bewegung
                        IV. "Ulricht:" Sehr Feierlich, Aber Schlicht
                        V. Im Tempo des Scherzos - Wild Herausfahrend -
                             Allegro energico - Langsam - Misterioso

WGTE - FM 91 broadcasts the Toledo Symphony on FM 91 In Concert. Tonight's concert will be re-broadcast Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 8PM through the generosity of the Edward H. Schmidt Musical Arts Fund.

Radio Clips:

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