Note the different venue
Gustav Mahler enjoyed initial professional success as a conductor, particularly of works such as Beethoven’s 9th symphony and the operas of Meyerbeer and Wagner. No wonder then that when it came to composing symphonic works, he felt they should be lengthy and involve large orchestral forces and voices. Following the muted reception of his first symphony in 1889, he was growing impatient that his status as a composer remained ‘undiscovered like the South Pole’, so for the première of his second symphony in 1895 he engaged the Berlin Philharmonic and a professional chorus, at his own expense. This was a great success, and his conducting assistant, Bruno Walter, said that ‘one may date Mahler’s rise to fame as a composer from that day’.
Requiring an enlarged orchestra, offstage brass, a large mixed chorus and soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, this monumental work tackles monumental questions of life, suffering, death and resurrection in five movements of extraordinary power and emotion.
Ticket Information
Admission: £20, £10 (students), £6 (under 14)
- [Online]