Ulster Orchestra presents Rustioni Conducts Mahler's Resurrection on 02 May 2020 at the Ulster Hall, showcasing an evening of beautiful music.
Gustav Mahler wanted his Second Symphony to exceed any known format – and he also wanted it to tackle the key questions of existence.
'Why have you lived? Why have you suffered? Is everything just one enormous, terrible joke? We have to solve these questions in some way if we want to carry on living,' said the composer.
It is one of the largest symphonies ever written, in terms of forces, length and harmonic scope.
In the first movement Mahler wrestles with funereal thoughts. In the second, we glimpse his masterful skill for nature-painting, while the third is best-known and celebrated for that apocalyptic crescendo known as the 'death shriek'. In the fourth, we are presented with what is at heart a lied, an art song, and its text is drawn from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a poetic collection to which the composer returned repeatedly during his career. Finally, in the apocalyptic fifth movement, the chorus and soloists combine in a tremendous hymn on the theme of ‘resurrection’ – the rebirth of the individual into immortal triumph.
- Mahler Symphony No. 2 Resurrection
- Daniele Rustioni Conductor
- Ruby Hughes Soprano
- Kai Rüütel Mezzo-Soprano
- Belfast Philharmonic Choir
