Mahler Triumphant!

Concert 4: Mahler Triumphant!

Thursday, April 26 @ 7:30pm
Discovery Series
Sanders Theatre

Saturday, April 28 @ 8pm
Pre-concert talk at 6:45pm
Jordan Hall

Sunday, April 29 @ 3pm
Pre-concert talk at 1:45pm
Sanders Theatre

Ticket Prices:
Thurs: $15/$35/$50/$70
Sat/Sun: $25/$45/$70/$90

Of all Mahler’s works, it may well be the astonishingly “modern” Symphony No. 7 that most fully expresses the mayhem of living in the contemporary world. In the first movement, with its startling transitions from darkness to light, touching at one moment on tragedy, at another on ecstasy, it lays out the conflicts and contrasts. Then, in the middle movements, it offers a kind of alternative refuge — dream-like, entrancing “night music”. In the end, though, it is in this world, not some remote after-life, that this symphony finds its true victory. It seems to say: “This is life. It’s rough — but I am going to look it square in the face, and win.”

After decades of undeserved neglect the Seventh has come to be regarded as one of Mahler’s supreme achievements; once the least known of Mahler’s works, it is now one of the most beloved of them all. Mahler uses his gigantic orchestra with restraint, coaxing timbres and textures from it that are bewitching and unprecedented. Until the rambunctious finale an aura of mystery lies over the symphony, unlike anything else in the composer’s works. The Seventh is essential for our understanding of Mahler, and as performances in past years have amply demonstrated, Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic are ideal interpreters of its teeming beauties. It would be hard to find a more perfect way to end the season!