Mahler’s “Resurrection” to launch Symphony Season
By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor –
The San Antonio Symphony is marking a couple of important anniversaries this year: its 80th season and the 10th and last season for its celebrated music director Sebastian Lang-Lessing. Fittingly, Lang-Lessing will conduct the orchestra in the season opener featuring Gustav Mahler’s Symphonie No. 2 in C Minor, Resurrection.
The orchestra played the same symphony five years ago at the first concert at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, a building that underwent its own “resurrection.” Through an enormous effort by visionaries and community leaders, the old San Antonio Municipal Auditorium was transformed into one of the best performance halls in the country, regularly praised for its excellent acoustics by musicians and singers who perform on its stage.
“At that time, it was very symbolic as the building had been resurrected as a new concert hall, and now, it’s more metaphorical of where we are with the symphony,” said Land-Lessing in a press release. “I think it’s a continuous journey of rebuilding and resurrecting to be stronger.”
He did not say it, but, of course, we can remember the San Antonio Symphony’s own “resurrection” just a year-and-a-half ago when its imminent demise seemed inevitable for several weeks before a decisive action by the brave Kathleen Weir Vale turned the tide in a more optimistic direction. So, there’s indeed a lot to celebrate.
Considered one of the greatest symphonies of all time, Mahler’s Resurrection deals with heavy themes, such as the mystery of death and the hope of an afterlife. The 5-movement work is grand and captivating, ending with the 38-minute finale that also includes dramatic, impassionate choral singing. The final words sung represent a cry of hopeful faith: “Die shall I in order to live/Rise again, yes, rise again, will you my heart, in an instant/That for which you suffered, to God Will it lead you.”
In the current SAS production, the singing will be done by the 140 San Antonio Mastersingers, still under the direction of the indefatigable John Silantien. Guest soloists, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, and soprano Deanna Breiwick – both rising national stars – will join them.
San Antonio Symphony presents Mahler’s “Ressurection”, Sept.20-21 at 8 p.m., Tobin Center for the Performing Arts; tickets $15-$100; www.tobincenter.org/box-office or 210-223-8624