The Fred Fox School of Music’s Arizona Symphony Orchestra is offering ‘A Mahler Requiem’ commemorating the tragedy, loss and renewed hope of 2020 and 2021.
Conducted by Dr. Thomas Cockrell, this special concert on Nov. 20 at 7:30p in Crowder Hall.
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is a symphonic panorama that begins with a funeral march and proceeds through grief and violent rage to eventually give way to gentle solace followed by a rekindling of exuberant life.
“During the darkest days of 2020, live music-making at the Fred Fox School of Music was suspended and our concert halls were hauntingly dark and silent,” said Cockrell. After 18 months apart from audiences, “I wanted to present a musical offering commemorating our shared ordeal, healing and thanksgiving.”
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), known for his large, cosmos-encompassing symphonies did not compose an actual mass for the dead like Mozart, Verdi or Fauré. Cockrell has blended movements from works of Gustav Mahler concerning grief, mourning, loss, solace and hope as a musical offering of shared emotions to the community, the weekend before our national commemoration of Thanksgiving.
The evening will center on movements from Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 5 (1905) paired with song settings of texts by German poet Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866). These include three from his Kindertotenlieder, “Songs on the death of children” which explore a parent’s journey through loss, grief, emptiness and eventual acceptance.
Faculty mezzo-soprano Kristin Dauphinais will be the featured soloist.
The music will be complemented by visual projections of the song texts, photographs captured during the pandemic by Arizona Daily Star photographers and images drawn from the Center of Creative Photography.
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