The conductor emeritus for life Zubin Mehta, on his birthday, on the podium of the hall dedicated to him, for the second symphonic concert as part of the Festival del Maggio Musicale. On the stands of the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus, on Saturday, April 29th, at 8 pm, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Auferstehung (Resurrection). Composed at the end of the 19th century, when the Austrian composer was conductor of the Budapest and Hamburg Opera Houses, it is one of the most famous and best-loved symphonies of the last century and a half, and maestro Zubin Mehta, in the course of his long career, has made it one of the gems of his repertoire: in addition to having performed it numerous times in the Maggio seasons, he has recorded it several times with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Soloists are soprano Christiane Karg, who returns to the Maggio two years after her symphonic concert with Daniel Harding in April 2021, and mezzo soprano Michèle Losier, returning after last January’s concert conducted by Ingo Metzmacher. The maestro of the Maggio Choir is Lorenzo Fratini.

Maestro Zubin Mehta and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino dedicate this concert to the memory of Vieri Torrigiani Malaspina, who recently passed away in Florence. The theatre pays a heartfelt tribute to Vieri Torrigiani, remembering his intense bond with the Maggio, both professionally and humanly.

The symphony
No symphony engaged Mahler as long as the Second, a grandiose work with a complex gestation whose genesis spans six years, from 1888 to 1894. The first movement was composed in 1888, the three central movements date from the summer of 1893, while the last and impressive movement is dated 1894. The five macro-sections into which Symphony No. 2 is divided thus originate separately and without a pre-established plan, which will emerge in the composer’s mind in the course of his work, only becoming explicit in its entirety a posteriori. If the first movement stands in poetic continuity with the finale of Symphony No. 1, linking itself to the figure of the hero, whose funeral Mahler now celebrates, the three central movements are conceived by the composer as moments of reflection on the experiences of the deceased. The problem for the composer was to find a Finale that would close the succession of different pages in an accomplished design. In 1894 Mahler had the decisive idea while listening to the first verses of a choral hymn on the ode Die Auferstehung by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock during the memorial service for Hans von Bülow; the ensuing enlightenment was immediate: his Second Symphony would conclude with a grandiose movement entrusted to the human voice, with intervention by solo voices and the chorus.

Soloists
A sought-after chamber music performer, Christiane Karg has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Edinburgh International Festival and is a regular guest at Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Mozarteum Salzburg, Musikverein Vienna and Wigmore Hall in London. She receives numerous awards for her recordings and was awarded the Diapason d’Or, the Choc de Classica, the Gramophone Editor’s Choice and the BBC Music Choice for her solo recital recording ‘Erinnerung’ with Lieder by Gustav Mahler in 2020. She is acclaimed for her interpretations of Mélisande, Blanche, Pamina, Susanna, Fiordiligi, Contessa, Sophie, Zdenka and Micaëla, among others, and works with conductors such as Harnoncourt, Harding, Nézet-Séguin, Mariss Jansons and Thielemann. In the 2022/23 season, Christiane reprised the role of Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Opéra de Paris and made her debut as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus in Graz. Recent concert successes include a tour with Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which included a debut at the BBC Proms, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 by Beethoven with Andris Nelsons and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Jonathan Nott and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, a tour with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, and concert performances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Michèle Losier studied at McGill University in Montréal and took part in the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, the Atelier Lyrique of the Montréal Opera and the Juilliard Opera Center in New York. He has received numerous scholarships (Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation; Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec; Canada Council for the Arts and Sylva- Gelber Foundation) and won first prize at the ‘Journées de la Musique Française’. He has sung at major opera houses and international festivals such as the Opéra Comique de Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra de Montréal, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opéra de Avignon, Opéra Lille, Fe- stival International de Lanaudière and Edinburgh International Festival. He has collaborated with numerous orchestras (Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Les Musiciens du Louvre, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Columbus Orchestra Sinfonica, Ensemble Pigmalione) and with renowned conductors such as Louis Langrée, Patrick Fourmilier, Emmanuel Plasson, Marc Minkowski, Jérémie Rhorer, Stephane Denève and Kent Nagano.