Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

HUNTERPAVILION 7:30 PM THURSDAY, JULY 23 , 2026 CHICAGO SYMPHONYORCHESTRA MARIN ALSOP, conductor MAHLER Symphony No. in A minor Allegro energico, ma non troppo Andante moderato Scherzo Finale . Ravinia expresses its appreciation for the generous support of Premier Sponsor The Negaunee Foundation as well as the Mahler 6 Consortium . e Mahler 6 Consortium comprises Mary Phillips Ainsley, Winnie & Bob Crawford, Jeanne & Tom Denison, Je & Kathryn Haydon, Chris & Elise Klein, Judy & David Schi man, Richard & Leslie Sevcik, Stuart Sondheimer & Bonnie Lucas, and the Stillman Family Foundation. GUSTAVMAHLER (1860–1911) Symphony No. in A minor Scored for four utes and piccolo, four oboes and English horn, three B- at clarinets, E- at clarinet, and bass clarinet, four bassoons and contrabassoon, eight horns, six trumpets, three tenor trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, glockenspiel, deep bells, cowbells, xylophone, bass drum, triangle, side drum, cymbals, slapstick, tambourine, tam-tam, switch, hammer, two harps, celesta, and strings Mahler reassessed his approach to symphonic composition in the early years of the th cen- tury. e song-in uenced, structurally diverse, and overtly programmatic style of his so-called “Wunderhorn” symphonies (Nos. – ) was laid aside for the more objective, thematically in- tegrated, and stylistic coherent language of the middle symphonies (Nos. – ). is transfor- mation, in his mind, represented a logical pro- gression. Unraveling the mysteries of these later works depended on a full awareness of their predecessors, as Mahler explained in relation to the Symphony No. : “ e Sixth will pose riddles that only a generation which has taken in and digested my previous ve can dare to solve.” is large-scale evolution unfortunately escaped many listeners. “My Sixth seems to be yet anoth- er hard nut,” Mahler wrote to Willem Mengel- berg on October , , “one that our critics’ feeble teeth cannot crack.” e latest symphony displayed one of the composer’s most Classical designs—four movements identi ed solely by their tempo designations—which audiences and critics should have readily grasped because of its very conventionality. Mahler, however, expand- ed these traditional forms to monumental Ro- mantic dimensions, nearly minutes of pure instrumental expression. Lacking a program- matic explanation, the almost obligatory inter- pretive tool of the era, critics were not alone in failing to crack the tough nut that was Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. is enigmatic composition originates from the summer of . Mahler, his beautiful young wife Alma, and their infant daughter Maria Anna (“Putzi”) spent several months at their villa at Maiernigg on the shore of the Wörther- see. His mornings were devoted to composition, and a ernoons were lled with hiking, biking, swimming, and romping around with Putzi. To- ward the end of August, the family returned to Vienna so that Mahler could prepare for the forthcoming season at the Hofoper. Manuscripts of the Sixth’s two middle movements, partly no- tated by Alma, traveled in their luggage. Mahler did not immediately resume work on the Sixth the following summer. Alma gave birth to another daughter, Anna Justine (“Gu- cki”), in Vienna on June . Less than a week later, Mahler set out for Maiernigg on his own, leaving Alma, Putzi, and Gucki in the care of his mother-in-law. Still exhausted from his de- manding schedule at Vienna’s Hofoper, Mahler found little inspiration in the sweltering heat and thunderstorms plaguing his summer hide- away. “But it’s strange: every time I come here, the climate invariably makes me profoundly de- pressed,” he wrote home to Alma. “As soon as I’m in Maiernigg, I lose all my energy and vital- ity, and it always takes me two or three weeks to get myself back into some sort of shape.” Having le the symphony manuscript behind in the middle drawer of his desk in Vienna, Mahler apparently tackled another un nished project: the song cycle Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children). e choice of subject matter horri ed Alma: “I was unable to understand how anyone could sing of the death of children when he had just kissed and hugged his own, hale and hearty, half an hour earlier.” On July , Mahler le on a short vacation in the Dolomite Mountains, presumably a er completing the Kindertotenlieder . is retreat accomplished its primary task, which was to revive the dispirited musician’s enthusiasm for composition. Joined once again at Maiernigg by Alma and the Gustav Mahler at Maiernigg with Maria Anna (“Putzi”) in 1905 RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 20 – AUGUST 2 , 2026 72