Recording from 02. Dec 2022

Mahler: Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection"

The Resurrection symphony was brewing inside Gustav Mahler for more than seven years. When it was finally finished in 1894, it was the composer’s most weighty attempt yet ‘to express precisely what words cannot.’

That year, Mahler had attended the funeral of his friend and colleague, the conductor Hans von Bülow. When the organist struck-up with Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock’s hymn The Resurrection, Mahler suddenly knew how his new symphony would end. He created what is, for many, his supreme vision of human suffering, despair, hope and elation. The Symphony No. 2 is piece in which, Mahler said, ‘you are clubbed down and then borne up to dizzy heights on angel’s wings.’

Chief conductor Edward Gardner and the orchestra are joined by Bergen choirs and international soloists for this performance of Mahler’s musical vision of everlasting transcendence and renewal – the composer’s most beloved and monumental symphonic creation and an overwhelming live music experience.