The lecture by IGMS President Christian Utz on the occasion of the performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony by the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel provides an introduction to the work.
The combination of the tragic and the comic, supplemented by intermediate stages such as the grotesque, is one of the basic characteristics of Gustav Mahler’s music. This becomes clear in the direct juxtaposition of serious and light movement characters, as in the 4th and 5th movements of the Third Symphony, but also in the ambiguity of individual motifs, themes, or passages, of which it remains open when listening whether they are “meant seriously” or betray ironic distance. On the basis of these considerations, the lecture will lead through the “cosmology” of the Third Symphony and also point to the intellectual background of the work (including the discussion of Friedrich Nietzsche’s impact) as well as aspects of performance history.