Resurrection

(image taken from the web)

Although I am busy getting ready for my upcoming trip, I did have time to go with a friend to a Cleveland Orchestra concert last night.  There was only a single work on the program, the massive Symphony No. 2 of Gustav Mahler.  The symphony is known as the "Resurrection", although the composer did not name it that.  The nickname comes from the text of the hymn in the fourth movement.  

Some years ago I heard Mahler's Symphony No. 1 performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, and it is one of my favorite symphonies.  Although I recognized some of the musical themes in the second symphony, I had never heard the complete work in performance.  It was  spellbinding.  Mahler was not a very popular composer during his lifetime.  Audiences did not know what to make of his sudden transitions from quiet passages with just a few instruments to thunderous swellings of the full orchestra which critics called "curtains of chaos".  I found the entire symphony quite suspenseful.  I never knew what to expect next.

In the final two movements the orchestra is joined by two solo vocalists, a soprano and a mezzo-soprano, and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.  It builds to a heavenly climax.  It was another spectacular performance by our world famous orchestra, and I have another symphony to add to my list of favorites.

If you would like to hear a portion of the symphony, below is a link to a YouTube video of the last movement.  It is not our Cleveland Orchestra... but it's not too shabby of a group... Leonard Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra and the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. 😃

Finale of Mahler's Symphony No. 2