Mahler 4 / Lied von der Erde
Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Sokhiev

2023 saw the long-awaited return of the Mahler Festival at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, which had to be postponed due to the pandemic. It focused on the life and work of Gustav Mahler, presenting performances of all symphonies and more works by leading Mahler experts over the span of 18 days.

Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony marks the end of his work on the poems from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn,” which he also set to music in the 2nd and 3rd symphonies and in their own lied cycle. From this cycle, Mahler incorporates “Das himmlische Leben” into the final movement of his 4th Symphony, where he contrasts the childlike confidence of the text with the finiteness of human life. The text speaks of joys, and in the end the music dies away. The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Tugan Sokhiev and with Christiane Karg’s delicately intimate and clear soprano voice led the audience at the Mahler Festival in Leipzig through a rousing Mahler Fourth, drawing an arc from radiant blue skies to cracks in the firmament and from the hope of heavenly life to the end of everything earthly.