NOSPR / Simone Young / Mahler - NOSPR

Mahler began work on his Seventh Symphony ‘from the middle’. In the summer of 1904, shortly after completing his Sixth, he penned the two ‘Nachtmusiks’ that he later incorporated in his Seventh Symphony as the second and fourth movements. A year later, when he resumed work on this composition, for several weeks he could not muster even the smallest motif. It was only the sound of the boat on which he returned to his summer residence after a trip to the mountains that determined the pulse and character of the introduction, stimulating him to work on the other movements. The first performance of this Symphony cost Mahler considerable nervous energy. During rehearsals, his room was filled with scraps of crossed-out pages of the score, and the composer, beset by doubts, mentally and physically exhausted, shunned the company of his friends. The audience received the work with reserve, but its artistry and innovation were appreciated by the modernists. Schönberg in particular, who had previously treated Mahler with distance, admitted after the first performance that the work had moved him to the core.

Duration of the concert: approx. 80 minutes