The pairing of Leonard Bernstein’s “Opening Prayer” with Gustav Mahler’s “Ninth Symphony” concludes the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s 2008-2009 season focus on two of the greatest composers of the last century.
The works will be performed Saturday at the Music Center at Strathmore under the baton of Maestra Marin Alsop.
Presenting both pieces in concert repertoire is a natural coupling.
“Bernstein, the legendary music director of the New York Philharmonic regularly programmed and recorded Mahler’s music,” said Paul Meecham, BSO president and chief executive officer. “[Bernstein] sparked a Mahler revival in America and abroad.”
And it was abroad, in Vienna, that Mahler’s “Ninth Symphony” premiered in June 1912. Its successful debut was praised by fellow composer, Alan Berg, who found it to be an excellent expression of fondness for the earth. After several movements, each recalling a different emotion, the symphony concludes with a moving adagio finale. Characteristic of all Mahler’s work, the music sounds so effortless that, according to writer Charles R. Hoffer, “… the listener can easily miss the expertise in his handling of the musical ideas.”
Bernstein’s “Opening Prayer” was originally composed for a gala concert celebrating the 1986 re-opening of Carnegie Hall after extensive renovation. In addition to the many instruments featured, the piece includes a solo performance by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke. Very slowly, as an incantation, she sings the words of the benediction.
“The challenge of singing in [Hebrew] is common to any piece of vocal repertoire in that you confront something entirely new to you,” said Cooke, whose appearances this season include the role of Kitty Oppenheimer in “Doctor Atomic” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the same roll with English National Opera in her European debut. “Luckily I spent two months in Israel last summer, and I went to the right sources to get a sense of the lilt of the language.”
Cooke, who considers herself a high-lyric mezzo, finds another challenge inherent in the work, itself.
“It has to have the aura of a prayer from the very beginning; the [singing] must be clear and pure,” she said.
If you go
Classical Concert Series: Mahler’s “Ninth Symphony”
Where: The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Info: $20 to $60; 410-783-8000; 877-276-1444; bsomusic.org
