Symphony Concert N° 9

It is hard to believe that the people of Dresden once looked askance at the music of Gustav Mahler. And this despite the fact that Ernst von Schuch had very early programmed the Second Symphony: He conducted three movements in January 1897 and the entire work five years later. The critics were certainly unimpressed, sarcastically thanking von Schuch for not aping his colleague’s efforts at composing: »We have enough composers like Mahler but only very, very few conductors like von Schuch«. More than 120 years later, the picture is quite another: the »Resurrection Symphony«, which deals with the themes of life, death and redemption, is universally acclaimed as one of the most profound works of the late Romantic period.