Beethoven and Mahler
Saturday, April 22, 2023 | Sunday, April 23, 2023
Sound Bites: A synopsis of today’s program
The persistent myth that Gustav Mahler wrote Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) as a response to the death of his eldest daughter Maria is incorrect, but like all myths, there is a grain of reality behind it. The poet Friedrich Rückert, who wrote the texts Mahler set to music, did lose both a daughter and a son to scarlet fever within two weeks of one another in the winter of 1833-34. Devastated, Rückert worked through his grief through a series of poems on the deaths of children; this collection, published posthumously in 1872, came to number more than 400 poems.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony broke symphonic conventions – length, breadth, types of movements, and occasionally harmonic logic. A true iconoclasm, this massive work originally inspired by Napoleon marked Beethoven as not just an innovator but a truly audacious musical revolutionary, to the conster- nation of his audiences and critics.
Season presented by
Series sponsored by
Concert Sponsors
Bain Family Foundation
John Carter and Virginia Snow Fund of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic Foundation
Guest Artist Sponsor
Helen and Bill Holmgren
Beverly Howes-Corbin Estate Dr. Susan Rae Jensen and Tom Adams Trainer
Program
Saturday, April 22 at 7:30pm
Sunday, April 23 at 2:30pm
Josep Caballé-Domenech conductor
Mary Phillips mezzo-soprano
| Mahler | Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the death of children) |
| I. Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n Now the sun prepares to rise as brightly II. Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen Now I see why such dark flame III. Wenn dein Mütterlein tritt zur Tür herein When your dear mother comes in through the door IV. Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen I often think they have merely gone out V. In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus! In this weather, in this bluster |
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Intermission
| Beethoven | Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55 “Eroica” |
| I. Allegro con brio II. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai III. Scherzo: Allegro vivace IV. Finale: Allegro molto |
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Program Notes
Artist Biographies
