Mahler: Totenfeier

The Concertgebouworkest performs Gustav Mahler’s Totenfeier under the baton of Fabio Luisi. The impressive funeral march got a second life as the opening movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony.

Mahler’s Totenfeier

Gustav Mahler completed his giant funeral march Totenfeier in the same year as the First Symphony. Totenfeier was first performed in its original form in 1983, having already been performed with various alterations as the first movement of the Second Symphony, the ‘Resurrection’. In its guise as the Allegro maestoso of Mahler’s Second Symphony, Totenfeier was also provided with a programme: the body of the hero from the First Symphony is borne to his grave.

Fabio Luisi, conductor

The Italian conductor Fabio Luisi made his first guest appearance with the Concertgebouworkest in 2005. He has been appointed to the Wiener Symphoniker, the Semperoper and Staatskapelle in Dresden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, among others. Luisi is currently music director of the Zurich Opera, chief conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and became most recently music director of the Opera di Firenze and the associated festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Mahler’s Totenfeier

Gustav Mahler completed his giant funeral march Totenfeier in the same year as the First Symphony. Totenfeier was first performed in its original form in 1983, having already been performed with various alterations as the first movement of the Second Symphony, the ‘Resurrection’. In its guise as the Allegro maestoso of Mahler’s Second Symphony, Totenfeier was also provided with a programme: the body of the hero from the First Symphony is borne to his grave.

Fabio Luisi, conductor

The Italian conductor Fabio Luisi made his first guest appearance with the Concertgebouworkest in 2005. He has been appointed to the Wiener Symphoniker, the Semperoper and Staatskapelle in Dresden and the Metropolitan Opera in New York, among others. Luisi is currently music director of the Zurich Opera, chief conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and became most recently music director of the Opera di Firenze and the associated festival Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

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