Teodor Currentzis and musicAeterna of Perm Opera with works by Gustav Mahler

Theodor Currentzis and his orchestra musicAeterna of Perm Opera are among the brightest comets shooting into the international musical firmament in recent years. They will devote themselves completely to Gustav Mahler’s music at this concert. In August 1900 he wrote of his Fourth Symphony that it is “so utterly different from my other symphonies. But it must be that way; it would be impossible for me to repeat myself, and just as life moves on, I likewise explore new paths in every new work. That is why at first it always seems so hard for me to get down to work. All the skill that experience has brought one is of no avail.”

In fact, the work, which premiered on 25 November 1901 in Munich, differed significantly from Mahler’s other symphonies. One can mention, for instance, the comparatively moderate playing time of the Fourth, about 50 minutes, its traditional division into four movements, a relatively small orchestra by Mahler’s standards, and a melodic shape of sound that seems to look back on 18th-century models. The nucleus of the work is, however, the last movement, which Mahler already conceived of while working on his Third Symphony: setting a song to music from the collection published by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim between 1805 and 1808, Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

It is not only logical but promises to be an exciting Mahler experience beyond all interpretative routine whenTheodor Currentzis and musicAeterna of Perm Opera combine Mahler’s Fourth with the composer’s Wunderhornlieder.