“Radiant Humility” – Humility & Faith IV – Gstaad Festival Orchestra III – Great Symphonies

Symphony Concert

Saturday, 19 August 2023
7.30 pm, Gstaad Festival Tent

It is no coincidence that the Second is one of Mahler's most popular symphonies: it talks about us, about our lives, about the permanent tension that is played out in our innermost being between this life and death, the two opposing sides – dark and inseparable – of a single being. From the funeral march of the initial Allegro maestoso to the final “resurrection” proclaimed by the choir in an Ode to Joy atmosphere on Mahler's words – “I will die to live!” –, the country idyll of the Andante moderato, the “cry of despair” of the Scherzo and the solemn simplicity of the famous Urlicht, in which the contralto's voice “suddenly illuminates the first movements“ (in the composer's own words), we pass through all the states, all the questions of our existence, carried away by the flow of an absolutely irresistible symphonic and choral composition. A real challenge for the Gstaad Festival Orchestra and its conductor Jaap van Zweden, accompanied in their voyage by outstanding soloists and choristers.

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