Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony

Mahler’s Second Symphony was one of his most successful works during his lifetime. Inspired in part by the death of his colleague and friend Hans von Bülow, the symphony is the composer’s tribute to his life-long ideals of the beauty of resurrection and the afterlife.

It was at Bülow’s funeral that Mahler heard the Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock hymn Die Auferstehung (The Resurrection), the refrain of which is ‘Rise again, yes, you shall rise again my dust’. These words, combined with Mahler’s own verses, provide the text for the symphony’s fifth and final movement, written for soloists and chorus combined, and probably the greatest depictions of redemption and renewal in all music. Under the baton of Kahchun Wong, this promises to be a truly memorable experience.

Have a listen ahead of the concert!