Klaus Mäkelä © Mathias Benguigui - Pasco&Co
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Mäkelä
Thursday
4
September
2025
19:30
Großer Saal
Presented by
Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft
Musical declaration of love
October marks the 100th anniversary of Luciano Berio's birth. In his work, the composer processed, quoted and adapted compositions by others as well as his own. With his »Rendering«, he completed Franz Schubert's 10th Symphony for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1988/89 on the basis of a few sketches that he was still able to make. This »restoration follows the guidelines of a modern fresco restoration, which aims to refresh the old colors without trying to conceal the damage caused by the centuries, whereby even empty spots can remain in the overall picture«, says Berio. Klaus Mäkelä, the designated chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, will now unveil the restored fresco once again in the Vienna Konzerthaus.
In the second half of the concert, the 5th Symphony by Gustav Mahler is on the program, which the Amsterdam orchestra already brought great success to during his lifetime. The Fifth became widely known, however, particularly through the use of the »Adagietto« as film music in Luchino Visconti's »Death in Venice«. According to the conductor Willem Mengelberg, Mahler wrote this movement as a declaration of love to his future wife Alma: »Instead of a letter, he sent her the manuscript, not a word more. She understood it and wrote to him to come.«