Stürmisch

The Sinfonieorchester Basel and Markus Poschner continue their Basel Mahler cycle. Following Symphonies 2 and 3 last season, it is now the turn of the stormy and turbulent 5th Symphony. Mahler called it a ‘cursed work’ that no one understood. Perhaps because Mahler composed it entirely without vocals, and therefore without lyrics? Critics, on the other hand, heard in it ‘an overwhelming abundance of beauty’. This includes, of course, the famous Adagietto, immortalised as music in Luchino Visconti's film Death in Venice. In addition to this declaration of love set to music, Mahler unfolds a gigantic panorama in his Fifth. From the funeral march, in which an entire world seems to be coming to an end, to an extended scherzo that mixes worldliness with wistful sounds, to the jubilant finale. In his stormy ‘Cursed’ symphony, Mahler once again builds a world. Entirely without singing voices.