Mahler Symphony No. 5

Mahler Symphony No. 5
Saturday, May 17, 2025
8PM - Hill Auditorium
Earl Lee, conductor & Music Director

“In which way I love you, my sunbeam, I cannot tell you with words. Only my longing, my love and my bliss, can I with anguish declare.” A love song to his beloved wife Alma, the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 continues to set the standard for musical tributes of adoration.

Framing this remarkable movement are expressions of triumph and despair, all within a broader symphonic conception that marked the composer’s shift to “pure” instrumental music and the contrapuntal intensity of J. S. Bach.

Music Director Earl Lee takes the podium to conduct this season-concluding concert, with Katherine Balch’s musica pyralis premiering as a co-commission in partnership with the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the Erie Symphony, with support from New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices program.

PROGRAM
Katherine Balch musica pyralis
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5

Artists & Repertoire Subject to Change.