Resurrection Symphony
Elisabeth Fuchs conducts Mahler's 2nd Symphony
Large festival hall

"Why did you live?
Why did you suffer Is this all just great, awful fun?
We must resolve these issues in some way if we are to go on living.”
- Gustav Mahler

 

Gustav Mahler's second symphony was intended to go beyond any known format and deal with the major questions of meaning. Also known as the "Resurrection Symphony", its overwhelming sonority allows the listener to understand the composer's existential struggle. In the finale, he contrasted the first, originally stand-alone first movement "Todtenfeier" with the song "Urlicht" from the collection "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" and words from Klopstock's "Die Auferstehung". With the treatment of the ironic song "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" in the third movement, however, Mahler defended himself against a clearly Christian interpretation of the symphony and advocated spiritual openness.

The work with soloists and choir, premiered in 1895, has not lost any of its enormous effectiveness, which will fully unfold in the Great Festival Hall. "Mahler's music gets under my skin. It is so intense and full of extremes - just like life itself. In the fourth movement he includes the human voice for the first time in his symphonic work. His primal light from Des Knaben Wunderhorn is like magic!” enthuses conductor Elisabeth Fuchs.

G. MAHLER · Symphony No. 2 in C minor, "Resurrection Symphony"

Alina Adamsky · Soprano
Vesselina Kasarova · Old
Elisabeth Fuchs · Conductor
Choir of the Philharmonie Salzburg
Philharmonic Salzburg

FR · 06. May 2022 · 19: 30
Big festival house, Salzburg
Concert duration approx. 90 minutes. Concert without a break.

Invitation to sing along!
Rehearsal schedule and online registration for choir singers:
www.philharmoniesalzburg.at/chor

Ticket prices: € 19 to € 99

Photo hands © shutterstock_ Love You Stock
Photo E. Fuchs © Erika Mayer