Performers
Programme
Accompanying programme
Concert introduction ‘before the museum’ with Ulrike Kienzle
“On this day, Gustav Mahler’s rise as a composer began,” recalled the conductor Bruno Walter. He was referring to 13 December 1895, the date of the world premiere of Mahler’s Second Symphony in Berlin. The work, consisting of five movements in its final version, takes the motto “Through darkness to light” as its theme.
The symphony opens with the ‘Funeral Overture’: originally conceived as an extension of the First Symphony (‘Titan’), this movement was first performed in 1894 at the funeral of the late conductor Hans von Bülow. On that occasion, a choir sang Klopstock’s hymn “Die Auferstehung”: 'It struck me like a bolt of lightning, and everything stood clear and distinct before my soul,' Mahler later confessed. He created a confessional, life-affirming piece of music that surpassed anything that had been heard before. “Cease trembling! Prepare to live!'
(Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V.)