Melbourne Symphony Orchestra: Ryman Healthcare Season Opening Gala: Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony

When he started writing in 1888, the then-28-year-old Mahler faced a series of intense existential questions. “Why have you lived? Why have you suffered? Is it all some huge, awful joke? We have to answer these questions somehow if we are to go on living – indeed, even if we are only to go on dying!”

Believing in the symphony’s potential to embody an entire world, Mahler explored these questions in a thrilling work featuring a vast orchestra alongside chorus and soloists.

In the expansive first movement, Mahler comes head to head with death in a furious funeral march, while a lilting folk dance and searching scenes of nostalgia and mourning comprise the following three movements. An epic choral finale culminates in a transcendent, life-affirming conclusion – recently featured in Bradley Cooper’s popular film Maestro.

The Resurrection Symphony is a breath-taking hymn to redemption, the afterlife and the resilience of the human spirit. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to hear Mahler’s masterpiece under the charismatic direction of MSO’s Chief Conductor Jaime Martín.