CSO Lamb & Hayward Masterworks: Bach, Mahler, Mozart

Bach arranged Mahler Suite from the Orchestral Works of J.S. Bach

Mahler Adagietto from Symphony No. 5

Mozart Requiem in D minor, K. 626

Chad Kelly - Conductor

Anna Lease - Soprano

Rose Aldridge - Alto

Andrew Grenon - Tenor

Samuel Mckeever - Bass

Mahler made his mark on Bach’s 18th-century Orchestral Suite, refracting Bach’s Baroque world through his late Romantic warmth. A work once elegant and orderly, Mahler makes it expansive, dramatic, and full of emotion about the complexities of the human condition. Bach died before the modern orchestra was born, but here the Baroque remains honoured in tasteful restraint. It’s a nod to the past, inspired and informed.

A work of Mahler genius follows with Adagietto from Symphony No. 5. Gustav Mahler’s declaration of love to his future wife Alma, disguised in a musical manuscript. It’s a beautiful love song without words, evoking feeling so strong and longing that, at times, the music seems to imply emotional pain mixed with bliss.

Let the emotions erupt. Mozart’s Requiem, a towering choral work, is an affecting, sometimes confrontational setting of the Mass for the dead. It’s an honest coming-to, where death in the face of terror leads to a profound understanding and graceful surrender. The Requiem was famously unfinished by Mozart, as the Classical composer reckoned with death himself. Mozart’s Requiem isdramatic, devotional, and deeply human.

With thanks to PKF Goldsmith Fox, CSO Soloist Partner.