Artists and Musicians

Cape Cod Symphony to Perform Gustav Mahler's Magnificent "Resurrection" Symphony on May 5 and 6

The Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra will perform Mahler's Resurrection Symphony on May 5 and 6, with a chorus compoed of members of the Chatham Chorale and the Falmouth Chorale. For a glimpse of what is in store for the audience, listen to Claudio Abbado conducting the symphony's finale at the Lucerne Festival. The movement begins very quietly. (Just wait! It's not the volume on your computer!) For perspectives on Mahler's masterpiece and additional information, please click here: More on Mahler

An Additional Perspective on Mahler from Soprano Diana Landau

 

Plaque on Mahler's Vienna apartment, 2-Auenbruggerstrasse. "Gustav Mahler lived and composed in this house from 1898 to 1909"

I had the unbelievably good fortune to sing with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus from 1991 – 2008, which meant that I got to sing virtually all the great choral-orchestral works, led by our resident music directors and guest conductors, including greats like Masur and Norrington. A typical season (1994-95 in this case) might include Mahler Symphony No. 8, Rachmaninoff The Bells, Janacek Glagolitic Mass, Handel Messiah, Britten War Requiem, Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, and a semi-staged version of Fidelio. Oh, plus a Christmas choral repertoire concert. (OK, that was a big season!)  

Because Michael Tilson Thomas, our music director from 1995 on, is a noted Mahlerian, it also meant that the Resurrection Symphony would roll around every few years. My first was 1992 under Herbert Blomstedt, the second, fourth, and fifth with MTT (including a 2004 recording). Somewhere in there was a terrific rendition with the Youth Orchestra. It must have amounted to 15 or more separate performances in all. 

Like Charles, I have favorite memories from these shows. Not all of them stirring and uplifting: part of the challenge of singing pianissimo-to-full-out at the tail end of a 70-minute work is physical preparation while you’re sitting there. We were coached to tighten/release glut muscles, get saliva going by poking our tongues around our mouths, and start diaphragm breathing 10 minutes before our “stand” cue—all invisibly to the audience, of course. 

But what always strikes me in this panoramic sound journey through life, death, and life eternal is how personal it feels despite its scope. Choral singing is an emotional pastime, and if you’ve sung with a group for long enough, you’ll have shared major life passages with fellow singers. The music we sing always resonates to this experience—and no work more than this one. I listen to “Urlicht,” the shimmering mezzo song that stops all the thunder about two-thirds along … as performed by the incomparable Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, who was dead two years after we recorded M2. Or in the last movement, when she sings with such urgency “O glaube, mein herz” (“O believe, my heart … that you have not lived in vain”), my own heart swells—no other way to describe it. I look at the photo in the CD booklet of principal clarinet David Breeden, who played with such pristine yet feeling tone and was gone a few years later. I think of Mich Steacy, one of our sopranos who passed suddenly and shockingly in the middle of a concert run. And of others, from in and outside my musical life. And they are present. 

Was entstanden is, das muss vergehen! Was verganen, auferstehen!

(“What has been created must pass away! What has passed away must rise again!”)

The chorus sings those words. Mahler 2 embraces death and embodies resurrection as completely as any music you’ll ever hear. It will reach you on that level, I promise. And you’ll be glad you were there.

And...More on Mahler

Members of the Chatham Chorale share perspectives on Mahler's Second. First, the background...

The Cape Cod Symphony will perform Mahler's Resurrection Symphony on May 5 and 6:

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony
A Musical Portrayal of the Human Experience
Jung-Ho Pak, Conductor  I  Barbara Quintilani, Soprano  I  Jayne Sleder, Mezzo Soprano
Chatham Chorale  I  Falmouth Chorale

 

 

 

 

Gustav Mahler  I  Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Resurrection

Mahler’s hymn to eternity culminates a season of celebration in magnificent fashion. A colossal, sprawling work, the Second Symphony features offstage brass, a massive battery of percussion and a vast and triumphant finale - one of the most powerful climaxes in all of music -- incorporating hundreds of singers and players. The CCSO, soprano Barbara Quintiliani, mezzo soprano Jayne Sleder, the Chatham Chorale and the Falmouth Chorale converge to portray the human experience in musical terms, with life, love, death and the promise of rebirth defining the journey.

Barbara Quintiliani, Soprano
The first American woman in twenty-five years to win First Prize in the prestigious Francisco Viñas Singing Competition, as well as the Verdi and Public Prizes, Quintiliani has been compared to such iconic singers as Leyla Gencer, Montserrat Caballé and Rosa Ponselle.

Jayne Sleder, Mezzo Soprano
Celebrated both at home and in Europe, mezzo-soprano Jayne Sleder has established herself as a commanding presence on the orchestral stage and is recognized for the diversity of her oratorio, opera, symphonic and recital repertoire. 

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For program notes from the Kennedy Center's 2008 presentation of this work, please click here: Mahler's Symphony No. 2: Program Notes 

Two members of the Chatham Chorale share their perspectives on the symphony:

Baritone Charles Bihler

Soprano Diana Landau

As we move closer to the Cape Cod Symphony's May 5-6 concert, please look for additional postings here. And please feel welcome to join the conversation!