Archived event
Performance details
Friday 24 February 2023 at 7.30pm
Saturday 25 February 2023 at 2pm
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall
From a concert attendee:
Outstanding performance by our Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra were in very fine form in all three pieces but the Mahler really was amazing.
Featuring
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Jaime Martín conductor
Siobhan Stagg soprano
Program
Mary Finsterer MYSTERIUM I*
R. Strauss Four Last Songs
Mahler Symphony No.5
*World premiere of an MSO Commission
About this performance
MSO Chief Conductor Jaime Martín and Soloist in Residence Siobhan Stagg open Season 2023 with a new commission by MSO Composer in Residence Mary Finsterer and some of the most achingly beautiful music ever written.
- Inspired by the renaissance-style motet, Mary Finsterer's MYSTERIUM I explores an interweaving of polyphonic musical structures within a serene and majestic setting.
- Posthumously titled Four Last Songs after his death in 1948, Strauss’s sublime pieces farewell a life and world once-known, but irrevocably altered by two world wars. Superstar soprano and darling of the international stage, Mildura-born Siobhan Stagg imbues these complex works with nostalgia, naïveté, and gentle, world-weary heartache.
- A central feature of the critically-acclaimed movie Tár starring Cate Blanchett, Mahler's Fifth Symphony is seeing renewed popularity. Written almost fifty years before Strauss’s songs and before the shadow of war, Mahler's mammoth work is a musical journey from tragedy to triumph: a story of life, death, and love. The lush lyricism of Mahler’s night-time storms, exuberant brass calls, and musical love letters draws us into a mysterious world beyond time and space.
Duration: approx. 2 hours and 20 minutes including interval
The MSO Gala series is proudly presented by MSO Premier Partner, Ryman Healthcare.
