Midcoast Symphony Orchestra on the WCME Midcoast Morning Buzz

Jim Bleikamp here.

A major musical treat awaits you at 2:30 this afternoon at Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham.

Midcoast Symphony Orchestra with 80 pieces will be aided by an array of classical singers in performing “Resurrection”–Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in F minor, which has been described as a piece of music that everyone needs to hear at least once in their lifetime.

Mahler wrote the first movement of this symphony in 1888, and originally intended it as a Todtenfeier—that is, a funereal work, possibly (according to Mahler himself) commemorating the death of the hero of his First Symphony, who was a fictionalized version of himself.

Partly due to his overwhelming responsibilities as an opera conductor and director, which meant that he only composed seriously during the summers, Mahler set this movement aside and did not pick up the symphony again until 1893, finishing it in 1894 when he was 34.

On the Friday WCME Midcoast Morning Buzz, we heard a part of this symphony and some reflections from two Midcoast Symphony violinists–Denise Shannon and Tyler Sherwin.

If you missed it, you may hear it here.