Photo: Gustav Mahler (photographed in 1892)
Today marks the anniversary of an important event in Classical music history. On this day in 1895, the first full performance of Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony occurred at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Gilbert Kaplan conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra .The Symphony (also known as the Resurrection,) was written by Mahler between the years 1888 and 1894.
"Mahler devised a narrative programme for the work, which he told to a number of friends. In this programme, the first movement represents a funeral and asks questions such as "Is there life after death?"; the second movement is a remembrance of happy times in the life of the deceased; the third movement represents a view of life as meaningless activity; the fourth movement is a wish for release from life without meaning; and the fifth movement – after a return of the doubts of the third movement and the questions of the first – ends with a fervent hope for everlasting, transcendent renewal, a theme that Mahler would ultimately transfigure into the music of his sublime Das Lied von der Erde."
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._2_%28Mahler%29
You can watch a full performance of this symphony (1 hour and 27 minutes in length) by clicking on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6idPaGqvV8
Enjoy!
For a Conductor's impressions of this symphony please visit the following website:
http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm8-3/Mahler_en.htm
Source of image of Gustav Mahler: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustav-Mahler-Kohut.jpg
