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Lancaster Symphony Presents Mahler’s Schumann

Jan. 11, 2012

Lancaster Symphony Presents Mahler’s Schumann

Perhaps few classical devotees are aware that a good portion of Gustav Mahler’s unbound creative energies functioned as tireless music editor. The pursuit of the finest possible realization of music’s power acting as his guiding principle, Mahler would commit to reworkings of Beethoven and Schumann symphonies throughout his career. This month the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra performs Mahler’s edition of Schumann’s Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish,” led by Music Director Stephen Gunzenhauser.

Compared to his tweaking of Beethoven’s works, Mahler intervened more drastically in the Schumann symphonies, particularly since he did not regard Schumann much as an orchestrator. This is not to suggest that Mahler did not proceed with great care. It was important for him to follow the original as much as possible, but to make improvements where matters of dynamic differentiation, tempo and transparency of sound were concerned. This work was all in an effort to bring to the fore individual musical events more clearly, representing to Mahler a clear improvement of orchestral sonority. The performances of Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 in the Fulton Opera House of downtown Lancaster mark the Pennsylvania premiere of the Mahler edition.

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Robert Schumann
Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish” op. 97 (1850)
arr. Gustav Mahler
for orchestra
2.2.2.2-4.2.3.0-timp-str
31’