RICHARD STRAUSS: Four Last Lieder, TrV296
GUSTAV MAHLER: Symphony No. 5, in C sharp minor
Soprano: Chen Reiss (Artist in residence this season)
Conductor: Lucas Macías
Program notes
To the fundamental works by Strauss and Mahler is added the stimulus of the premiere of a contemporary Spanish musician, Borja Mariño, with the orchestral version of Campanas de sol y aire on texts by contemporary Sevillian poets, presented in its version for voice and piano in Seville in April 2022. We will now see the new nuances that the orchestral writing adds to the verses of Juan Lamillar, Lutgardo García, José María Jurado and Ignacio Trujillo.
The Four Last Lieder are the late symbol of musical romanticism, the vision of a Europe devastated after the world wars. Written in 1948, it was the editor Ernest Roth who arranged the order and title of the cycle. ‘Spring’, “September” and ‘Going to Sleep’ are based on poems by Hermann Hesse, ‘Dusk’ on one by Joseph von Eichendorff. Strauss, who died in 1949, bequeathed us sublime music that is both a farewell to life and a serene acceptance of death.
If in the three previous symphonies Mahler uses the human voice, in the Fifth he dispenses with words in composing one of his best-known works, written at the beginning of his relationship with Alma. Its movements evolve from the opening funeral march to the final rondo and feature thematic variety and popular motifs. His famous Adagietto is a love song, a gift for his future wife. With the Fifth, a new creative phase begins, culminating in the desolation of the Ninth.
Juan Lamillar