Edo de Waart Conductor
Lauren Snouffer Soprano
Anna Larsson Mezzo-soprano
Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir
Orpheus Choir of Wellington (Wellington only)
Auckland Choral (Auckland only) 

Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C minor Resurrection

Join NZSO music director Edo de Waart, two outstanding soloists, and choirs for Mahler’s huge Second Symphony – Resurrection.

This is one of Mahler’s most popular works. Using massive forces – vocal soloists, a choir, extra wind and percussion, and offstage brass and percussion – to create high drama, there are also many quieter, intimate moments.

Mahler wrote various programmes for this work highlighting the struggles of a hero who finally succumbs to death. The first movement represents a funeral. The second remembers happy times. The third “when you awaken from a blissful dream and are forced to return to this tangled life of ours”. The fourth is a wish for release from a life without meaning. In the final movement, “the end of every living thing has come; the Last Judgment is at hand … the trumpets of the Apocalypse ring out.”

Mahler later withdrew the programme, telling his wife that “it gives only a superficial indication, all that any programme can do for a musical work.”

Swedish mezzo-soprano Anna Larsson is renowned for her Mahler interpretations, which she has sung with the world’s greatest orchestras.

Graduating from The Juilliard School in 2011, American soprano Lauren Snouffer is one of the most versatile young sopranos on the international stage.