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The Toronto Symphony Orchestra Performs Schumann's Second Symphony in Mahler's Arrangement

Sep. 07, 2010

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra begins their 2010/11 season with two programs celebrating Gustav Mahler, who died 100 years ago in 1911. On September 23 and 25, Peter Oundjian conducts the TSO along with Isabel Bayrakdarian, Susan Platts, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony. Following that program, on September 30 and October 2, the TSO performs Mahler’s arrangement of Schumann’s Second Symphony.

Mahler’s arrangement of the Second Symphony premiered in New York in November 1910. With over 350 changes to Schumann’s original score, Mahler’s orchestration embellishes this symphony with intense dynamics, intuitive omissions and repeats, and forceful doublings that bring out the orchestra’s power. Included are some anachronisms, such as the use of trombones and other valved brass instruments, and some outright changes in harmony, such as substituting a moving bass line in G for a sustained F pedal tone in the last movement. Common for many conductors at the time, such amendments to the original score emphasize Mahler’s own original vision and artistic voice in interpreting Schumann’s masterwork.

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Robert Schumann
Symphony No. 2 (1845/6)
arr. Gustav Mahler
2.2.2.2-2.2.3.0-timp-str
31'

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