Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Jaap van Zweden

• Classical Music

World-class finale: under the theme of »Zukunft« (Future), the Hamburg International Music Festival brings together the global players of classical music to conclude the season with exciting programmes. Included here is one of the most long-standing and prestigious orchestras in the USA: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Led by star conductor Jaap van Zweden, they fill the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall with the visionary music of Gustav Mahler.

Only a few composers have bestowed as many futuristic aspects to orchestral music as Mahler. A sought-after conductor with an international career himself, when composing, he intimately knew about the limits of the orchestra and could exhaust and repeatedly push them. In his magnificent and sombre Symphony No. 6, the most obvious sign of Mahler’s gift for innovation is a novel percussion effect: the famous hammer blow, which conjures up the apocalypse in the tragic final movement and thereby became the symbol of this entire work. This is, however, somewhat curtailed because the rest of the symphony is no less emotional, stirring and brilliant. A huge work of fiction in notes, captivating from the first to the last second!

PERFORMERS

Chicago Symphony Orchestra orchestra

Jaap van Zweden conductor

PROGRAM

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 6 in A minor