"The opportunity to play Mahler's Second Symphony comes once every ten years in the life of an orchestra,” says Fischer. For the BFO, this moment has now arrived once again. Even back in 2006, they had created something of lasting value: "Majestic yet intimate, overwhelming yet tender, meticulously planned and brilliantly executed. One of the best recordings ever made of the Resurrection Symphony,” is how the Washington Post described it.
Mahler's music, tense in the extreme, is full of powerful emotions and fantastic contrasts. Constantly pushing the boundaries of the genre, Mahler said that "the symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything.” And this work of nearly one and a half hours in length did not fail in this regard. In its scope and thematic material, the Resurrection Symphony is a grandiose piece employing a vast orchestra and chorus.
The composer starts off with the gravity of a funeral procession. Later, the listener reaches a lighter state of happy reminiscence, which lasts until the thundering timpani yank them into a gloomy meditation on the futility of life. After the fourth movement expresses the yearning for escape and relief, the finalé - over half an hour long - is given over to hope and total disengagement.

Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra