Notes by Valerie Sly, 2026

On paper, this program, with its Songs on the Death of Children and Requiem Mass, appears all about death. It’s not just the pieces, but the composers, too, whose legacies are shaded by mortality. Both died young—Mozart at just 35 and Mahler at 51. Mozart’s death sparked a rash of speculation and rumor before his body even touched the soil; for Mahler, mortality became a ghost that persistently haunted him.

Mahler’s obsession with death is understandable considering the number of losses he suffered in his life. Eight of his thirteen siblings died in childhood, including his favorite brother, Ernst, which hit him particularly hard. He later lost a child of his own, just days before being diagnosed with the heart condition that would eventually kill him. He spent much of his life dogged by the feeling that he was doomed, and an obsessive existentialism lurks throughout his body of work.

Mozart, however, saw death a little differently. He was a Freemason, which carried with it an embrace of our unavoidable mortality. The Masons believe that death is our truest friend, rendering all people equal and, perhaps most importantly, reminding us that our time is finite.

Despite his apparent morosity, Mahler’s music is full of redemption. Moments of beauty, joy, and triumph always peek through the darkness. Mozart, an opera composer at heart, embraced the full spectrum of human emotion and drama.

Both found solace and redemption in beauty, love, and above all, music. The arc that unites all the works on this program is that journey from darkness to light—the acceptance found in the end of Kindertotenlieder, the love in the “Adagietto,” and the redemption of eternal rest that defines a Requiem Mass.

Perhaps the best summation of this program comes from a guiding principle of Freemasonry: Memento Mori—remember, you must die. The phrase is not a warning but an invitation. Remember, you must die… and so, you must live.

One last note of interest: Mozart’s music had an enormous impact on generations of composers to come, but few loved him as much as Mahler, whose last words are widely accepted to be, “Mozart, Mozart.”