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MAHLER
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013 | 8:00 PM

Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Dr. Marlan Carlson, conductor

Reserved Seat Tickets

Reserved tickets can be purchased on-line: $18, $25, $30 in advance (or $20, $27, $32 at the door). purchase individual tickets »

General Admission Tickets

General admission tickets are $18 in advance, $20 at the door. Available at Grass Roots Books & Music, Gracewinds Music. CAFA and student discounts apply.

For accommodations for people with disabilities please call 541-752-2361.

Notes from the Maestro on the Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler

The Fifth Symphony of Gustav Mahler is truly one of the all-time “Monuments of Music,” on a par with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony in terms of its scope, complexity and exploration of the human condition.  It was composed in 1901-02 at exactly the same time that he met the love of his life, the ravishingly beautiful Alma Schindler, whom he married within a few weeks after their introduction in November of 1901.  The famous and serenely beautiful Adagietto movement for strings alone is often regarded as Mahler’s unabashedly passionate declaration of love for the woman who would soon become his wife. 

Similar to the “Resurrection Symphony” which the Orchestra performed last season, the Fifth Symphony develops into a five movement journey from despair to exuberant joy.  To open the Fifth Symphony, Mahler uses the solo trumpet as a starkly ominous summons for the first movement Funeral March.  In fact, major portions of this movement seems to be derived from a song Mahler had written at the time which depicted the last reminiscences of a poor little Drummer Boy who’d gotten himself into trouble and was being carted away for public execution. 

In the Second movement, Mahler juxtaposes torrents of anger at all of the world’s injustices against a certain resignation that enables one to carry on.  In the Third movement Scherzo, Mahler brings together the disparate worlds of rollicking peasant dancing and the sophisticated Viennese Waltz.  It is in the latter that Mahler depicts his generally cynical view of urban life…appropriate in a sense as at this time in his role as Director of the Vienna State Opera, he was beset with all kinds of petty chicanery from city bureaucrats and a relentlessly hostile press.  Following the Fourth movement “Song for Alma,” the solo horn signals the dawn of a new day at the start of the Fifth movement.  Joy and happiness are omnipresent throughout this movement, and in the final pages, the power of the human spirit to overcome adversities of whatever kind are proclaimed in two triumphant chorales in the brasses.

For this performance, Maestro Carlson will assemble an orchestra of around 120.  As part of the concert, he will also present a set of guidelines to assist audience members in their voyage from darkness and despair to light and hope.