Resurrection Symphony

On Easter Sunday 2027, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, also known as Resurrection Symphony, is performed at the Opera House. The work grew out of his symphonic poem Totenfeier (Funeral Rites), composed in 1888. The monumental five-movement composition, which also features large-scale choral sections, was inspired in part by F. G. Klopstock’s poem Die Auferstehung (Resurrection), heard at the funeral of the world-renowned conductor Hans von Bülow. In Mahler’s own words, “it struck me like a bolt of lightning, and everything suddenly became clear and vivid”. The first two stanzas of the poem, supplemented with Mahler’s own text, are also heard in the symphony’s final movement. “The tension builds to such a climax that I myself do not know how I was able to compose it,” Mahler confessed about his work, which proclaims the miracle of resurrection and the afterlife.

The first part of the programme features Suite from the Orchestral Works of Johann Sebastian Bach, a composition in which Mahler brought together selected movements from Bach's Orchestral Suites Nos. 2 (in B minor) and 3 (in D major), including the famous “Badinerie” and “Air”, to form a single cycle for a concert in New York in 1909. While leaving Bach’s melodies untouched, Mahler enriched the orchestral colours and reinforced the continuo part, in which the piano imitates the sound of the harpsichord. The result is a unique encounter between two musical worlds: that of the Baroque master and the late-Romantic conductor and composer.