Manege starts a new format of classical music concerts in collaboration with St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergei Stadler.

20th Century Music, the Great and the Terrible offers concerts once a season. The first one will take place on March 28.

Program:

Gustav Mahler. Das Lied von der Erde (the Song of the Earth), for tenor, alto and orchestra.

Soloists: international award winners

Anastasia Meshchanova (mezzo-soprano)

Dmitry Voropaev (tenor)

Gustav Mahler composed the Song of the Earth not long before he passed away. He confessed it was his most personal piece that he created under the influence of Tang poetry. The Song of the Earth conveys everything Mahler had on his mind: his thoughts about the meaning of life and the imminence of death are combined with images of nature. This piece would have been called Symphony No. 9, if it hadn’t been for Mahler’s superstitious fear of 9, which became the last number for both Beethoven and Bruckner.

Dmitry Shostakovich. Violin Concerto No. 1. Nocturne: Moderato.

Soloist: Sergey Stadler (violin)

In many ways, Dmitry Shostakovich is Mahler’s spiritual successor. In his conversations with friends, Shostakovich kept saying: “If somebody tells me I have an hour before I die, I’d love to hear the last part of the Song of the Earth”. In his Nocturne, he raised the same existential dilemmas, as did Mahler in his last complete symphony.

Manege hosts this concert in remembrance of all the victims of the fire in Kemerovo.