RCO: Mäkelä conducts Mahler 5

The chief conductor designate Klaus Mäkelä is once again following in the footsteps of Gustav Mahler. Since Mahler led the orchestra in his Fifth Symphony in 1906, they performed it 130 times. The kaleidoscopic symphony evokes emotional extremes. ‘Each movement has its friends and foes,’ Mahler once said. Yet the Adagietto, the symphony’s very lifeblood, seems to have only friends. According to Willem Mengelberg, the orchestra’s then chief conductor who maintained close contact with the composer, this movement was a pure declaration of love to Mahler’s wife Alma. The young violinist Daniel Lozakovich joins the Concertgebouw Orchestra for the first collaboration together. He shines in Max Bruch’s legendary First Violin Concerto. PROGRAM Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1; Mahler: Symphony No. 5