5. Symphony Concert

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C minor "Resurrection Symphony"

"Is this all just a wild dream, or does this life and death have a meaning?" wrote Gustav Mahler in a programmatic presentation of the first movement of his sonorous Second Symphony. With this, Cornelius Meister and Staatsorchester Stuttgart are continuing their Mahler cycle and are creating a symphony concert for the first time together with the multiple award-winning Staatsoper Chor. In the first movement the hero of Mahler's First Symphony is buried. This is followed by two blurred memories of the deceased's life before the voice of faith can be heard in the fourth movement, the “primal light”, with the alto solo. Mahler finally introduces the longed-for answer to the initial question in the last sentence, in which an apocalyptic distant orchestra calls for the "Last Judgment". As if out of nowhere, the choir proclaims the redeeming message: "You will rise again, yes you will rise". As a fascinating reflection of Mahler's own existential struggle, the second as well as his first are closely autobiographical: “My two symphonies exhaust the content of my entire life; it is what I have put down in it, experienced and suffered, truth and poetry in tones. "