Gustav Mahler: Symfónia č. 3Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 3

In memoriam Jiří Bělohlávek / The concert is dedicated to the memory of conductor Jiří Bělohlávek.

Former chief conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Emmanuel Villaume continues his long-standing project of performing Mahler’s symphonies. Mahler considered his symphonies to be a reflection or image of “the world”. This is especially true of his Third Symphony, whose individual movements represented, according to the composer’s ideas, stages of creation: the 1st is a musical image of the birth of life in the womb of nature, the 2nd an image of flowers in a meadow, the 3rd of animals in a forest, in the 4th movement man enters the scene, in the 5th angels and the 6th movement is an expression of love.

In addition to the monumental symphonic apparatus, a female solo voice is integrated into the 4th movement and a female and children’s choir into the 5th. Young British mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston will be featured as vocal soloist. After Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, Mahler’s work is another celebrated example of the use of the slow movement as the symphony's finale - the final Adagio swings in wide arcs and flows into a triumphant, anthemic conclusion.