SD Symphony: Music of the Night - Mahler Symphony No. 7
Rafael Payare, conductor
San Diego Symphony Orchestra
MAHLER: Symphony No. 7 in E minor
One of the greatest orchestral composers of all time, Gustav Mahler wrote symphonies which – as a later composer famously remarked – “sum up the whole history of music”. Rafael Payare is a passionate, renowned champion of Mahler and determined this composer should be central to the repertoire and mission of our San Diego Symphony Orchestra. In this concert, he reaches the epic Seventh Symphony, a huge cathedral of sound in five movements, which move from an eerie opening inspired by a trip across an alpine lake at night, through three central movements filled with the ghosts of nocturnal dreams and experiences, to an ending like a colossal and heroic dawn in which all humanity seems to be celebrating.