Marin Alsop conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony with the Colorado Symphony

May 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Conductor laureate Marin Alsop will lead the Colorado Symphony in performance of Mahler's great masterpiece, the Symphony No. 9 in D major, for two nights only on Friday, May 27 and Saturday, May 28 at Boettcher Concert Hall. A testament to the ebbing of a great man's life, the art he cherished, and even the society in which he lived, Mahler's Ninth Symphony is among the most poignant works ever composed. The Ninth Symphony also proved to be an enormous influence on Mahler's younger Viennese colleagues, who followed its lead in creating a new musical style for the new century. It received its premiere in Vienna on June 26, 1912, thirteen months after the composer's death. Known in the symphony orchestra world to "bring out the best in conductors and orchestras," Mahler's Ninth remains a milestone in each concertgoer's lifetime experience.

On Friday, May 27, Colorado Symphony fans across the state will also have the opportunity to listen to a real-time, live broadcast of Mahler's Ninth conducted by Marin Alsop on Colorado Public Radio (CPR). Beginning at 7 p.m., listeners can tune in to their local CPR station or listen online at www.CPR.org. The CPR broadcast starts 30 minutes before the concert begins. During the prelude, CPR hosts will introduce the music to be heard during the live broadcast, and interview musicians and artistic leadership backstage. The final Colorado Symphony – CPR broadcast of the season, it offers thousands of listeners the opportunity to experience a live performance of Mahler's Ninth from virtually any location in Colorado.

Mahler, heir to two centuries of the greatest and most profound German music, knew that his works stood at the end of the hallowed tradition of symphonic music extending back through Brahms and Beethoven to Mozart, Haydn and Bach. He was also acutely aware that more than just this mode of artistic expression was waning. The forces that ignited World War I were already swinging into place in 1909, and Mahler was convinced that life, as he knew it, would be destroyed and would never come again.

"Mahler's music expressed the intuitive forebodings of an artist listening to the distant rumblings of the future and, as such, formulating the apprehensions of the suppressed and inarticulate ... who found in him, the Austrian Jew, their most sympathetic spokesman," commented the Austrian composer, conductor and musicologist Hans Redlich.

"What one makes music from is still the whole — that is the feeling, thinking, breathing, suffering human being," Mahler told Bruno Walter, who conducted the work's premiere. Mahler lived his life bravely, productively, wholly, right to the end. Walter, in his loving book on his mentor, wrote, "The music [of the Ninth Symphony] grew to be a tragically moving and noble epitome of the farewell feeling. A unique soaring between farewell sadness and a vision of Heavenly light, it lifts the Symphony into an atmosphere of celestial bliss."

The Colorado Symphony concerts will be performed without intermission.

About Marin Alsop
In September 2007, Marin Alsop made history with her appointment as the 12th music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the first woman to head a major American orchestra. This mirrored her ongoing success in the United Kingdom where she was principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony from 2002 to 2008 and is now conductor emeritus. Alsop also continues her association as conductor laureate of the Colorado Symphony following 12 years as music director, and since 1992 has been music director of California's acclaimed Cabrillo Festival, which has won the coveted ASCAP award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music every single year since her appointment. In February 2011, Alsop was named principal conductor at the Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra in Brazil.

The first artist to win both Gramophone's "Artist of the Year" award and the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor's Award in the same season, Alsop was named to a MacArthur Fellowship (the first conductor to receive this prestigious American honor) and won the Classical Brit Award for Best Female Artist that year. She has also received the Royal Philharmonic Society's BBC Radio 3 Listeners Award and a European Women of Achievement Award. In 2008, she was inducted as a fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Alsop is a regular guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She is also one of the few conductors to appear every season with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic, and has conducted many other distinguished orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Zurich Tonhalle, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony and La Scala Milan.

Alsop is a native of New York City; she attended Yale University and received her master's degree from The Juilliard School.

Tickets: Tickets for these performances are on sale now at www.coloradosymphony.org, the Colorado Symphony Box Office: (303) 623-7876 or (877) 292-7979 or in-person in the lobby of Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Artists:
Colorado Symphony
Marin Alsop, conductor

Program:
MAHLER: Symphony No. 9 in D major

Performances:
Friday, May 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: Tickets for these performances are on sale now at www.coloradosymphony.org, the Colorado Symphony Box Office: (303) 623-7876 or (877) 292-7979 or in-person in the lobby of Boettcher Concert Hall in the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

About the Colorado Symphony
The state's only full-time professional orchestra, the Colorado Symphony embraces a tradition of musical excellence by presenting a diverse array of symphonic performances throughout the year. Originally established in 1989 as the successor to the Denver Symphony, the Colorado Symphony performs in Boettcher Concert Hall and throughout the Front Range, presenting outstanding education and outreach programs, as well as Masterworks, Pops, Holiday, Family, and the exciting new "Inside the Score" series that has attracted a historic level of first-time concertgoers. By presenting music that is both timeless and inspiring, while taking risks with new musical collaborations and interactive concerts, the Colorado Symphony is attracting more diverse and younger audiences than ever before. To date, 30 percent of the 2010/11 season concertgoers are new patrons. The increasing popularity of Colorado Symphony concerts as well as a strong fund-raising base not only re-affirms the artistic excellence of the orchestra, but also reflects the deep-rooted enthusiasm for symphonic music felt by so many individuals across the region. For more information about the Colorado Symphony, visit www.coloradosymphony.org.

Media Contact
Margaret A. Williams
Office: 303.308.2472
mwilliams@coloradosymphony.org

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Originally established in 1989 as the successor to the Denver Symphony, the Colorado Symphony performs in Boettcher Concert Hall and throughout the Front Range, presenting outstanding education and outreach programs, as well as Masterworks, Pops, Holiday, Family, and the exciting new "Inside the Score" series that has attracted a historic level of first-time concertgoers. By presenting music that is both timeless and inspiring, while taking risks with new musical collaborations and interactive concerts, the Colorado Symphony is attracting more diverse and younger audiences than ever before. To date, 30 percent of the 2010/11 season concertgoers are new patrons. The increasing popularity of Colorado Symphony concerts as well as a strong fund-raising base not only re-affirms the artistic excellence of the orchestra, but also reflects the deep-rooted enthusiasm for symphonic music felt by so many individuals across the region. For more information, visit www.coloradosymphony.org.