8. Philharmonisches Konzert - Tragische

In the organizer's words:

Tragic

Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Alondra de la Parra Conductor

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 6 in A minor ("Tragic")

With the 6th Symphony, Gustav Mahler composed perhaps his darkest work. Right at the beginning, the music stomps off in a darkly menacing marching rhythm. Fortunately, the composer grants us at least brief moments of calm in the agitated mood of his "Tragic": small idyllic islands to catch our breath. In the first movement, these are the herd bells of the cows on the mountain pasture. For Mahler, they represent the last sounds he heard on his numerous walks in the mountains - before he was surrounded by "heavenly" peace on the summit. In the sublimely beautiful string singing of the slow movement, we can then hear a painfully beautiful declaration of love to his wife Alma. But this brief moment of happiness is short-lived; in the finale, catastrophe inexorably strikes. Its three booming hammer blows have always been associated with the composer's personal misfortunes: the end of his career as director of the Vienna Court Opera, the diagnosis of a serious heart condition and the death of his daughter. And so this tragic symphony ends in hopelessness. After Alondra de la Parra traced transatlantic worlds of sound twice in the last season, this time she delves into the dark abysses of Mahler's symphonic cosmos.