Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Myung-Whun Chung
Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in C minor is conducted by the world-renowned maestro and pianist, Myung-Whun Chung, at the Gran Teatro La Fenice, located in the heart of Venice. This superb venue offers impeccable acoustics for one of Mahler's best-loved symphonic works, often referred to simply as the Resurrection Symphony.
Mahler's Second Symphony is arranged in five movements. However, when the piece was first performed in Berlin on 4 March 1895, only three of its movements were presented. It was not until December of that year that Mahler had completed the symphony sufficiently for it to have its debut as a five-movement work. The first movement was begun in 1888, the year that his first symphony was completed, so the journey from initial sketches to a fully completed symphonic masterpiece took several years. It is often regarded as one of the finest symphonies to have been written. Indeed, it was welcomed with rapturous applause when it finally appeared in its finished format, bringing Mahler much fame throughout the musical world.
The first three movements only involve the orchestra. There is a notable trumpet solo in the first while the second is punctuated with folk rhythms here and there. Mahler's music in the third movement features timpani and swirling arrangements for the string section. In the fourth movement, a choir is used to augment the orchestral music, which takes a German folk tune as its inspiration. What follows is the impressive finale, a fifth movement which accounts for almost one-third of the entire symphony. There are solo passages for soprano and alto singers in this section, but the full choir and orchestra are again used as a mighty ensemble to dramatic effect.
Myung-Whun Chung is a South Korean conductor. He takes charge of the choir and orchestra of the La Fenice Opera House for this performance. Chung was appointed as the Emeritus Director of the Scala Filarmonica in Milan in 2023. He holds the post of Honorary Music Director at the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and has also taken up the role of Artistic Director at the new Busan Opera and Concert Hall in South Korea in recent years. Chung won the Abbiati Award, a prize determined by Italy's music critics, for his previous conducting at La Fenice in Venice in both 1988 and again in 2015.
Under the baton of such an accomplished maestro, as Myung-Whun Chung surely is, this performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at the Gran Teatro La Fenice will no doubt be of the highest quality.