GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 2, in C minor ‘Resurrection’.
Soprano: Emőke Baráth
Mezzosoprano: Emily D'Angelo
Choir of the Teatro de la Maestranza and Joven Coro de Andalucía
Choirmaster: Marco García de Paz
Conductor: Lucas Macías
Program notes
That the new season and the debut of Lucas Macías as the orchestra's chief conductor should begin with a work of the dimensions, architecture and intensity of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony is a declaration of intentions. On the pillars of three Mahler symphonies - this second, but also the fifth and the sixth, which will be performed in January and May, following the cycle of the seasons - the present season of the Symphony is based.
It is inevitable to return to Mahler's famous statement: "A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything". The performance of this sonorous cathedral, with its transition from the shadow and pain of death, opens the curtain and draws the broad framework of a subscription that ‘contains everything’. Musical literature abounds with testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by hearing this work. In 1997 our orchestra performed it under the orders of the quixotic millionaire Gilbert Kaplan, obsessive conductor of this unique work, which he edited and recorded with great success and which he turned into the reason for his existence after hearing it at the age of twenty-three: "I entered the hall as one person and left as another. The presence of the Hungarian soprano Emöke Baráth and the Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo - who will announce the irruption of the human voice in the fourth movement, prelude to the fifth choral movement - is one more incentive to enjoy a work that is eternal in its conception: ‘Resucitarás, sí, resucitarás’ (You will rise, yes, you will rise).
José María Jurado García-Posada