Concerts
Friday, 7th may, 7:30 PM – Teatro Municipal Jorge Eliécer Gaitán.
Saturday, 8th may, 4:00 PM – Auditorio León de Greiff.
Sunday, 9th may, 11:00 AM – Teatro Municipal Jorge Eliécer Gaitán
Conductor: Lior Shambadal
Contralto: Kismara Pessatti
Soprano: Claudia Riccitelli
Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá
Coro de la Opera de Bogotá
Gustav Mahler: Sinfonia no 2, Auferstehungs-Sinfonie
The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahler’s most popular and successful work during his lifetime. It is his first major work that would eventually mark his lifelong view of the beauty of afterlife and resurrection. In this large work, the composer further developed the creativity of “sound of the distance” and creating a “world of its own”, aspects already seen in his First Symphony. The work lasts around eighty to ninety minutes and has 5 Movements:
1. Allegro maestoso
Musically, the first movement, though passing through a number of different moods, often resembles a funeral march, and is violent and angry. Mahler calls in the score for a gap of five minutes before the second movement. This pause is rarely observed today.
II. Andante moderato
his slow movement itself is contrasting to the two adjacent movements. Structurally, it is one of the simplest movements in Mahler’s whole output. It is the remembrance of the joyful times in the life of the deceased.
III. In ruhig fließender Bewegung (With quietly flowing movement)
Mahler called the climax of the movement, which occurs near the end, sometimes a “cry of despair”, and sometimes a “death-shriek”.
IV. Urlicht (Primeval Light)
The fourth movement, Urlicht, is a Wunderhorn song, sung by an alto, which serves as an introduction to the Finale in a manner similar to the bass recitative in Beethoven’s Ninth. The song, set in the remote key of D-flat major, illustrates the longing for relief from worldly woes, leading without a break to the response in the Finale.
V. Im Tempo des Scherzos (In the tempo of the scherzo)
The finale is the longest, typically lasting over half an hour. It is divided into two large parts, the second of which begins with the entry of the chorus and whose form is governed by the text of this movement. The first part is instrumental, and very episodic, containing a wide variety of moods, tempi and keys, with much of the material based on what has been heard in the previous movements, although it also loosely follows sonata principles. New themes introduced are used repeatedly and altered. Mahler wrote of this movement: “The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don’t know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.” (wikipedia)