A chance to experience a piece of music that has been used for ballets, movie soundtracks and even figure skating routines will grace the Kuss Auditorium with Symphony No. 5 at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Clark State Performing Arts Center.
Wilson said Mahler’s work shares amazing similarities to Beethoven like short-short-short-long motive that Beethoven turned into an entire movement, likewise Mahler uses a very similar motif to open the first movement of his fifth symphony or moments that sound almost like Johann Sebastian Bach could have written them, and Mahler had developed an affinity for Bach’s music.
“Mahler is so great at describing the human condition in purely musical terms,” he said. “This piece takes us from the depths of despair in the opening funeral march to unbridled joy in the last movement of this 76-minute piece. His music is complex, often embracing several different emotions all at the same moment.”
One of the highlights is the Adagietto movement, a love song Mahler wrote for his new bride, Alma, and used in ballets, skating performances and in movies.
Even other music greats revered Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Wilson shared an urban legend has it that the famed conductor Leonard Bernstein had such an affinity for this piece that he asked to be buried with a copy of the score.
Besides hearing this classic, the audience will also experience a brand-new text critical edition of the piece representing recent research according to Wilson.
“I think we are the first orchestra in the world to perform the piece utilizing this new version,” Wilson said.
Also, being a large work in terms of numbers of musicians, even more will perform. Principal players were asked to suggest players to add to their sections to complete the rosters and picked up interest from two bassoonists from Chicago and two French horn players from Florida.
“An opportunity to play Mahler No. 5 doesn’t come around often, so they are likely to accept,” said Wilson.
Author Arved Ashby, who recently wrote a best-selling book on listening to Mahler’s music will deliver the pre-concert talk, Wilson said.
MORE DETAILS
Tickets cost $47-76, with a limited number of student tickets available for $15. For tickets or more information, go to www.springfieldsym.org/event-details/gustav-mahler.
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