The climactic symphony contemplates the afterlife with “bone-chilling” hymns and calls to the dead.
At the halfway point of its 2022 season, the Grand Teton Music Festival will showcase Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor, “Resurrection,” with nearly 200 musicians packing the stage at Walk Festival Hall this weekend.
Cast in five movements and scored for a massive orchestra, chorus, and soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, the symphony contemplates life and death on a cosmic scale, and culminates in an ecstatic hymn of resurrection — one of the greatest of all music climaxes.
The program will be conducted by GTMF Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles and feature the Festival Orchestra, with the GTMF Chorus directed by Barlow Bradford and soprano Heidi Stober and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Mezzo-soprano Tamara Mumford was replaced by Cooke over the weekend due to illness. As usual, Friday’s performance will start at 8 p.m. while Saturday’s will begin at 6 p.m.
