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Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
conductor Antonio Pappano
mezzosoprano Sasha Cooke
GUSTAV MAHLER
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
for voice and orchestra
Symphony No. 1 in D major
Titano
The Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano are the stars of the highly anticipated final concert of the Festival dei Due Mondi. Spoleto66 closes with two masterpieces by Gustav Mahler. More than anyone, the composer’s music can make us participate in the immensity of the world around us.
In writing the four Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Symphony No. 1, Mahler realized the importance of the relationship between humans and nature. His Nature is both ecstatic and terrifying; it is a labyrinth that reverberates with secret voices that mirror the human soul’s inability to know all.
He also wrote the text of the Lieder: a young man begins to walk, not knowing what he is looking for, driven only by an inner torment. The nature around him is the only possible conversation partner for his resigned grief; we hear it respond in the call of the cuckoo, and in the greeting of the chaffinch and the bellflower, whose voices are brought to life by the instruments.
The Symphony continues the journey of the Lieder, to the point of borrowing some of their melodies. The first movement – one version was entitled “Endless Spring” – opens with the voices of nature.
“With the first sound,” Mahier told violist Natalie Bauer-Lechner, “the long ‘A’ of the strings with harmonics, we are in the midst of nature: in the forest, where the summer sunlight sparkles, flickering through the branches. In this forest we remain spellbound watching the unfolding of the entire Symphony. At one point, from a distance, we see a fantastic procession approaching: hares, foxes, deer and roe deer. They dance as they escort the body of a dead hunter. It seems to be inspired by Moritz von Schwind’s popular illustration from German childhood literature “Funeral of the Hunter,” which inspired Mahler for the March in the third movement. The double basses intone the melody of “Fra martino” – made funereal and grotesque by the change of key – to accompany the journey of these animals who seem almost human, some happy and some sad.
production Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi
Please note that dates and times may be subject to change.
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