MAHLER’S FIFTH SYMPHONY. Euskadiko Orkestra and Antonio Méndez

Repertoire

Maurice Ravel: Alborada del gracioso (1904-1905; orq. 1919) 6′
Pablo Sorozábal: Siete Lieder (1927) 16′
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor (1902) 68′

ARTISTS

Miren Urbieta-Vega, soprano
Antonio Mendez, conductor
Euskadiko Orkestra

Programme

A version for orchestra of Alborada del grazioso, a piecethat Maurice Ravel initially included in his suggestively titled series for piano Miroirs, is to open a concert with plenty of charm performed by the Euskadiko Orkestra conducted by Antonio Méndez, and with soprano Sofía Esparza, starring in the piece composed by Pablo Sorozábal in 1927.

Gustav Mahler’s Fifth, which begins with a trumpet solo before leading to a fascinating strepitoso involving the entire orchestra, can be heard in the second part of the concert. In addition to the famous funeral march, a distant relative of Beethoven’s Third, the convergence of characteristic registers of Mahler’s opus leads to the incredible, highly praised adagietto. Unresolved dialectics between beauty and decadence, dramatising the delicacy of a sentiment that seems impossible, thus breaking with classical formulas from within tradition and opening the doors to new ways of understanding music.