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