Daniel Barenboim leads the Vienna Philharmonic in its first performance at the Wiener Philharmoniker following the COVID-19 lockdown.
The fifth evening of the Mahler Festival features Daniel Barenboim leading the Vienna Philharmonic in Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, plus the tender yet powerful Kindertotenlieder. Mezzo-soprano Okka von der Damerau will be performing the solo.The Vienna Philharmonic and Daniel Barenboim
According to conductor Daniel Barenboim, there’s something like a love affair between him and the Vienna Philharmonic. ‘The sound of this orchestra has always been linked with singing and dancing.’ Tonight, Barenboim will conduct Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. First however, listeners will be treated to the Kindertotenlieder: Friedrich Rückert wrote no less than 428 poems about the death of his children, and of these, Mahler selected five. The tender yet powerful orchestral songs will be sung by mezzo-soprano Okka von der Damerau.
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony
‘Each movement has its fans and detractors,’ Mahler wrote, referring to his Fifth Symphony. He was ecstatic that this work aroused such extreme reactions in listeners. The Fifth is purely instrumental after three partly-vocal symphonies. However, it’s no less intense: sometimes jubilant, then again sombre, and always incandescent. ‘This work has come to represent the total of all the suffering life has handed me.’
Mahler Festival
From 8 – 17 May 2020, The Royal Concertgebouw will be hosting its third monumental Mahler Festival. Following the tradition of the 1920 and 1995 Mahler Festivals, all of Mahler’s symphony will once again be performed in the Concertgebouw’s legendary Main Hall. For the 2020 festival, these symphonies will be brought to life by esteemed guests including four internationally renowned orchestras that Gustav Mahler conducted himself: the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.