Concert information
Info
Mahler’s Third Symphony is a kind of musical creation story: The piece, wrote the composer, “gives all of nature a voice,” even the most secretive aspects. The work tells of plants, animals, and humans – and of divine love as the highest form of all being. Sounds from nature, echoing calls, military and funeral marches lead up to an overwhelming final hymn. The performance is conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Chief Conductor of the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The vocal soloist is Joyce DiDonato, one of the best-loved mezzo-sopranos of our time.
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor
Joyce DiDonato mezzo-soprano
Ladies of the Rundfunkchor Berlin
Boys of the Staats- und Domchors Berlin
Programme
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Additional information
Duration ca. 1 hour and 40 minutes
Dates and tickets
Main Auditorium
49 to 156 €
Introduction
19:15
with Frederik Hanssen
Series A: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
49 to 156 €
Introduction
19:15
with Frederik Hanssen
Series H: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
49 to 156 €
Introduction
18:15
with Frederik Hanssen
Series I: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Background
“I ‘devour’ books!”
Mahler as a bookworm
Literature was central to Mahler’s inner life, and thus also to his music. Books offered him far more than education or entertainment: they were companions, sources of intellectual nourishment and mirrors of personal experience. Writers from Goethe to Rückert shaped his thinking as a composer, not least in the Third Symphony.
Biography
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Yannick Nézet-Séguin made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in October 2010 and has since become a regular guest with the orchestra. Since 2018 he has also served as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Financial Times described him as the “greatest generator of energy on the international podium,” — and he is frequently praised for the intensity and immediacy of his music-making. “Inside you must have a precise idea of what you want to achieve. And then your hands are just an extension of what you have in your head,” says the Franco-Canadian conductor. Nézet-Séguin studied piano, conducting, composition and chamber music at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec, and later choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton.
Since 2012, Nézet-Séguin has also served as Music Director of The Philadelphia Orchestra. He remains Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, with which he signed a lifetime contract in 2019, and appears regularly as a guest conductor with leading orchestras around the world. Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato has praised not only his musicality but also his collaborative way of working with orchestras: “He has this irrepressible desire to bring everyone to the point where they can fly.”
Joyce DiDonato
Joyce DiDonato’s repertoire ranges from Handel and Monteverdi through Mozart and Rossini to contemporary music, making her one of the most versatile mezzo-sopranos on today’s international stage. The Kansas-born singer is admired not only for her technical command and dramatic intelligence, but also for the immediacy of her stage presence. She made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in June 2015 and has since returned regularly to Philharmonic concerts. “I have sung around the world in wonderful theatres and with wonderful orchestras,” she said, “but there is something iconic and untouchable about the Berlin Phil.”
In 2014, DiDonato was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. She has received three Grammy Awards alongside numerous other distinctions and has appeared in recital at venues including Wigmore Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York. A committed advocate of contemporary music, she has also performed in modern stage works such as Mark Adamo’s Little Women, Tod Machover’s Resurrection and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking.
Rundfunkchor Berlin
Critics have praised the Rundfunkchor Berlin for the clarity, flexibility and precision of its sound. “There is probably no other choir that does so many different things so well and can engage with such a wide-ranging repertoire and variety of formats,” says Gijs Leenaars, the ensemble’s principal conductor and artistic director since the 2015/16 season. Its programmes range from large-scale choral-symphonic works and a cappella concerts to interdisciplinary projects that rethink the traditional concert format and open up new ways of experiencing choral music. In its regular “sing-along concerts”, enthusiastic amateurs are invited to perform alongside the choir. Founded in 1925, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is today a sought-after partner of leading orchestras and conductors.
The choir has appeared regularly with the Berliner Philharmoniker since the early 1990s in works including Dvořák’s Stabat mater, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette and Ligeti’s Requiem. Their staged collaborations have included acclaimed performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion and St John Passion with Sir Simon Rattle and director Peter Sellars. The partnership has continued under chief conductor Kirill Petrenko in works such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Schoenberg’s Die Jakobsleiter and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony.
Staats- und Domchor Berlin
The Staats- und Domchor Berlin, the boys’ choir of the Berlin University of the Arts, is known for its clear, bright sound and precise intonation. Founded in 1465 by Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg, it is considered the oldest musical institution in Berlin. The ensemble entered a major phase of artistic development in the 19th century under conductors including Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Otto Nicolai and August Neithardt, when it served as the Royal Cathedral Choir. In 1923 it received its present name and became affiliated with what is now the Berlin University of the Arts. Today the ensemble comprises around 250 boys’ and young men’s voices at different stages of training, from early musical education to concert performance.
The choir appears regularly at Berlin Cathedral, at ceremonial occasions and in the city’s major concert halls. It maintains artistic partnerships with ensembles including the Rundfunkchor Berlin, Lautten Compagney Berlin, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Berliner Philharmoniker. Since 2002 it has been directed by Kai-Uwe Jirka, professor of choral conducting at the Berlin University of the Arts and, since 2006, artistic director of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin. “My experience is that children enjoy singing when they are encouraged in the right way. Singing is a fundamentally human impulse,” Jirka says of the choir’s work across a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the present day.
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