This month the Utah Symphony will perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, the final installment of a cycle begun in 1999 by its music director, Keith Lockhart. The two performances, at Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City on April 24 and 25, come during Lockhart’s final season as music director; this is the first time the orchestra has performed a complete Mahler cycle since Maurice Abravanel was its music director, from 1947 to 1979. Under Abravanel, an early advocate of Mahler’s works, the orchestra made the first-ever complete recorded Mahler symphony cycle. The orchestra’s final performances this season under Lockhart will be of Bernstein’s Mass on May 29 and 30. During the 2009-10 season a series of guest conductors will lead the orchestra, which is in the middle of a search for its next music director.
Posted April 7, 2009
Photo of Keith Lockhart courtesy of Utah Symphony
