Wiener Symphoniker / Schuen / Popelka

Loss, farewell, hope, fear: Gustav Mahler’s songs from »Des Knaben Wunderhorn« depict the human condition – particularly that of the soldier – in all its complexity. The portrait artist Andrè Schuen is interested in »how differently Mahler portrays people – with all their hopes, their vulnerability, their humour and their inscrutability«. The concert by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Petr Popelka, features a selection of the »Wunderhorn« songs.

Mahler’s Fifth
The second half of the concert features Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, which achieved great fame particularly through the Adagietto, which Luchino Visconti used for his film »Death in Venice«. In this work, the composer returned to the purely instrumental symphony, having previously used texts from »Des Knaben Wunderhorn« in his Second, Third and Fourth Symphonies.