Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. “Resurrection”

August 1 & 2, 8:00 PM
Church of the Transfiguration
Rock Harbor, Orleans, MA

Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. “Resurrection”

August 1 & 2, 8:00 PM
Church of the Transfiguration
Rock Harbor, Orleans, MA

Experience the “sheer physical thrill of a live performance” (Gramophone) of Gustav Mahler’s monumental Symphony #2: Resurrection, performed by world-renowned choir Gloriæ Dei Cantores and Creare Symphonia, joined by soloists Martha Guth (Soprano) and Kathryn Leemhuis (Alto), under the direction of Richard K. Pugsley. Musicians across America will come together to create a force of over 150 musicians for this unique performance. The ensemble will be joined by the church’s “fabled” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) surround-sound St. Cecilia organ, and performed in the “acoustical marvel” (American Record Guide) of the Church of the Transfiguration in Orleans, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the church’s dedication (2000-2025).
The Resurrection Symphony  has been hailed as a “vast symphonic fresco” (Gramophone), offering an epic journey that is magnificent, spiritual, frightening, charming, triumphant.

“Be Flabbergasted” Audiophile Voice

“Superb!” BBC

“A Quality that lies beyond words” Boston Globe

Program notes written by the Composer himself, about the Resurrection Symphony:

I have named the first movement ‘Funeral Rites’. We are standing beside the coffin of a beloved man… it is the hero of my first symphony whom I bear to the grave… At the same time there are great questions: ‘What next? Why did you live? Why did you suffer? Is it all nothing but a huge, terrible joke? Or has this life of ours a meaning?’ We must answer these questions in some way, if we want to go on living… and this answer I give in the final movement.

The second and third movements are conceived as an interlude. The second is a memory – a moment of bliss from the life of this hero… the image of a long-forgotten hour of happiness, which now enters the soul like a shaft of light – you could almost forget that which has just happened.

Fourth movement – The stirring voice of simple faith soothes our ears.

Fifth movement: we are confronted once more with terrifying questions. A voice is heard crying aloud: ‘The end of all livings things is come – the Last Judgment is at hand’….the earth quakes, the graves burst open, the dead arise and stream on in endless procession… The cry for mercy and forgiveness strikes fearfully in our ears. The wailing rises higher – our senses desert us, consciousness fails at the approach of the eternal spirit. The last trumpet is heard… We can just catch the distant, barely audible song of a nightingale, a last tremulous echo of earthly life… And behold! It is no judgment… There is no punishment and no reward. Just an overwhelming love illuminates our being. We know, and are.