The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Jaap van Zweden perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 at the Royal Concertgebouw, as part of the Mahler Festival in Amsterdam. Photo courtesy of Todd Rosenberg Photography.
In Thursday’s (5/22) WBEZ (Chicago), Hannah Edgar reports, “At the Royal Concertgebouw … Marina Mahler couldn’t stop eavesdropping on the rehearsal happening just yards away…. The symphony she was listening to from the other side of the wall was written by her grandfather, Gustav Mahler. Marina, now 81 and residing primarily in Italy, was the guest of honor here in Amsterdam, where a festival dedicated entirely to her grandfather’s music united five orchestras from around the globe. One of them was the Chicago Symphony, the sole representative from the Americas—and the first in the Mahler Festival’s 100-plus-year history…. Over its duration from May 8 to May 18, the festival welcomed 56,000 attendees…. Chicago’s Symphony Orchestra has performed Mahler’s music over most of its history, starting with the Fifth Symphony in 1907. Mahler’s symphonies, especially that one, would become closely associated with the CSO during the tenure of former music director Sir Georg Solti … For its two sold-out festival performances on May 14 and 15, the CSO played Mahler’s Sixth and Seventh Symphonies. The Seventh has special resonance for the CSO, which introduced it to the U.S. The Sixth, performed the night before, is an intense, driving epic … At the end of their second concert, the ovation for the Chicagoans lasted some 10 minutes.”
