Zubin Mehta / Mahler's Third Symphony

Two great parts subdivided into six movements form the longest symphony ever composed.  Gustav Mahler finished his Symphony n. 3 in D Minor on August 6, 1896 after three years of work. It is a grandiose composition, using a monumentally large number of musicians, including a contralto soloist, a female chorus and a children’s choir, evoking the eternal relationship between man and nature. The sum of life and allegory of love intertwine in this work that Mahler himself described as “something the world has never heard before: nature speaks here and tells such profound secrets that perhaps we can only hear them in our dreams”.

Program

Gustav Mahler
Symphony n.3 in D minor
I Kräftig entschieden
II Tempo di Menuetto
III Comodo (Scherzando)
IV Sehr langsam - Misterioso
V Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck
VI Langsam - Ruhevoll - Empfunden

Artists

Conductor
Zubin Mehta

Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Mezzosoprano
Okka von der Damerau

GUSTAV MAHLER

Born July 7, 1860 in Kaliště, Bohemia, at fifteen he entered the Vienna Conservatory, where he met Hugo Wolf and the elder Anton Bruckner. His first known composition is a piano quartet from 1876 which was followed by some lieder. In 1880 he began his career as a conductor, achieving huge public success when in 1887 he was called to Leipzig to replace Arthur Nikisch in the Ring des Nibelungen. His Symphony No. 1, first performed in Budapest in 1889, received a cold reception, but six years later in Berlin, his Symphony No. 2 was met with resounding success. Director of the Vienna State Opera from 1897 to 1907, in 1908 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York with Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner and was given the following year the musical direction of the New York Philharmonic. Upon his return to Vienna, he died on May 18, 1911 leaving his Symphony No.10 unfinished.

 

OKKA VON DER DAMERAU

Born in Hamburg, she studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock, the Opernschule of Stuttgart and the Hochshcule für Musik of Freiburg where she graduated in 2006.  In the same year she was invited to join the ensemble of the Staatsoper of Hannover where she sang in Rigoletto, Das Rheingold, Madama Butterfly and the world premiere of Die fromme Helene by Edward Rushton. From 2008 she was part of the ensemble of the Bayerische Staatsoper, where she performed in numerous operas including Parsifal, Die Walküre, Der Fliegende Holländer, Hänsel und Gretel, Die Zauberflöte, Ariadne auf Naxos, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Boris Godunov, Otello, Salome and Manon Lescaut. She has participated at the Bayreuth Festival and was a soloist in the Te Deum by Anton Bruckner conducted by Kent Nagano at the Vatican.