BRITTEN / MAHLER

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

In 1940, Benjamin Britten was commissioned to compose a piece by the Japanese Government, to mark the 2600th Anniversary Celebrations of the Japanese Empire. The result was the Requiem. Japan was not pleased with this piece – in fact, they were insulted by its Christian theme and mournful tone. It was not included in the celebration. This work is Britten’s first major purely orchestral work.

It is rare for a year to go by without a performance by Mr. Zander of one of the Mahler symphonies. His unique rapport with the music of this composer is known and acknowledged around the world through his numerous performances and his award-winning recordings. If there is one work of Mahler that stands out among all the others as the lodestone, the work that has drawn Mr. Zander back over and over, it is the Ninth.

Like Beethoven, Mahler summed up his ultimate message to humanity in a final, big, public work that seems like a last will and testament. Written in the shadow of death, which the composer knew was not far off, the symphony speaks of final things. In it one hears Mahler’s last thoughts about mortality, about life in all the complexity of its struggle, about the harrowing fear of death, and the peace that settles in as one contemplates death not as an end but as a kind of melting into the infinite.