Rising
CFA students master Mahler’s Resurrection for Symphony Hall (slide show)
Click the slide show above to hear the BU Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus preparing to perform the Resurrection at Symphony Hall.
Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, best known as the Resurrection, is a complex piece that explores enormous issues. A 90-minute, 5-movement work for orchestra, chorus, and soloists, the symphony examines death, rebirth, and faith.
“Mahler, at 29 years old, was asking really huge questions, and the marvelous thing about having a group of young people playing this piece is that they, too, end up having to confront those questions,” says David Hoose, a professor of music and director of orchestral activities at the College of Fine Arts. “In a sense, everyone has been preparing for the performance of this piece since the beginning of his or her musical training.”
More than 320 musicians will have spent 65 hours rehearsing to perfect the piece, which they will perform at Symphony Hall on Monday, November 6, at 8 p.m. Soloists Stephanie Chigas (CFA’05) and Michelle Johnson (CFA’07) will accompany the Boston University Symphony Orchestra and Symphonic Chorus.
In the slide show above, Hoose and Ann Howard Jones, a CFA professor of music and director of choral activities, discuss the process of practicing Mahler’s Second and preparing for Symphony Hall. For more information about the event, visit the College of Fine Arts Web site.