Wednesday, March 22, 2023 (Ann Arbor, MI) — The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra (A²SO) will celebrate the conclusion of its 94th concert season on April 22, 2023 with a performance of Johannes Brahms’ spirited Hungarian Dance No. 1 and Gustav Mahler’s gargantuan Symphony No. 2 (dubbed the “Resurrection Symphony”). Awarded the prestigious Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award (the first person of Asian descent to receive the honor), Earl Lee will direct the concert as the orchestra’s new Music Director. Following an 8-month season of MainStage, Pops, community and youth performances, the April performance draws Lee’s first season to a close after his appointment in June of 2022.
Heartfelt and sprightly, Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1 begins the concert. Dr. Santa J. Ono, the newly appointed President of the University of Michigan, will join the A²SO as a special guest for the performance of this work. An accomplished cellist in his own right, Ono studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore prior to his pioneering work in experimental medicine and academia.
Massive, menacing and unimaginably moving, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 forms the second half of the program. Depicting the quasi-religious transformation from darkness to light, the work begins with apocalyptic string utterances before full choir forces join in with the orchestra to express the resurrection theme in the work’s closing bars. Inexhaustible efforts by Mahlerians such as Leonard Bernstein rescued the work from obscurity, with Bernstein insisting on its performance just two days following on from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A fitting profession of deliverance from despair, the symphony’s performance set the stage for one of Bernstein’s most memorable quotes: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
Rising South African soprano Vuvu Mpofu and decorated Canadian mezzo-soprano Susan Platts join as soloists, with the UMS Choral Union and director Scott Hanoian also partnering with the orchestra for the performance. With the performance of the Mahler being so large and logistically challenging, conductor Yeo Ahn will assist Earl Lee in directing the choir, at times located off-stage.
Tickets for the concert can be found at a2so.com/mahler-2 or by contacting the A²SO Box Office at 734.944.4801 or tickets@a2so.com. A pre-concert talk will take place at Hill Auditorium one hour prior to the concert, sponsored by Rehmann. The concert is sponsored by Walbridge, with additional support provided by a grant from the Michigan Arts & Culture Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.