Press Release: Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
In co-production with BVA International and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra
Gustav Mahler:
Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
conductor: Ingo Metzmacher
Jane Irwin – mezzo-soprano
Prague Philharmonic Choir
Kühn Children's Choir
Lukáš Vasilek (chorusmaster)
Jiří Chvála (chorusmaster)
19 April 2009
Smetana Hall,
The Municipal House, Prague
Symphony No. 3 in D minor for alto, children's choir, women's choir and large orchestra, composed 1893-1896, text from Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also sprach Zarathustra) by Friedrich Nietzsche and from the collection The Youth's Magic Horn (Des Knaben Wunderhorn). Premiere: Krefeld 9 June 1902. In Prague the composition was premiered by the German Theatre Orchestra, cond. G.Mahler, on 25 February 1904. Duration 90-100 min.
The Third Symphony is Mahler’s hymn to the natural world. Mahler was inspired by the grandeur of nature, by a sense of every natural creative force in the universe, by pantheistic thoughts. In his plan Mahler proceeded through the stages of evolution from inert matter to flowers, animals and mankind himself – before rising to universal love, which he imagined as a supremely transcendental force.
The Gustav Mahler Jugend-orchester is recognized today as the number one talent factory for European orchestral musicians. It was founded in 1986 on the initiative of Claudio Abbado, now its music director, along with Thomas Angyan and Hans Landesmann in Vienna. The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester was the first international youth orchestra to succeed in holding open auditions in the former East Block countries. The aim of these auditions was and is to provide highly gifted young musicians with valuable orchestra experience working with great conductors outside their home countries. In 1992 the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester was opened to musicians up to the age of 26 from anywhere in Europe. As the pan-European youth orchestra, it is under the patronage of the European Council. Every year the GMJO is invited to perform by the most prestigious concert promoters and festivals, such as the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft, the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms London as well as the Edinburgh
Festival, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Lucerne Festival. The orchestra's high level of artistic quality and its international success have moved important conductors to work with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester: to name just a few - Claudio Abbado, Serge Baudo, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Sir Neville Marriner, Kent Nagano, Václav Neumann, Seiji Ozawa, vocalists: Thomas Hampson, Dmitrij Hvorostovskij, Angelika Kirchlager, Anne Sofie von Otter, Dawn Upshaw and many renowned instrumentalists such as Helene Grimaud, Evgenij Kissin, Martha Argerich, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maxim Vengerov and Yo-Yo Ma. Numerous recordings were released by EMI Classics, Deutsche Grammophone, Arte Nova and other labels.
The mezzo-soprano Jane Irwin is a renowned British opera, concert and recital singer. She has sung regularly in Britain and Europe, and in 2002 she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Mariss Jansons. She has sung for the BBC Proms, at the Edinburgh Festival, the Berlin Festival, the Concertgebouw and the Musikverein with many great orchestras and conductors. Her concert repertoire includes Verdi Requiem, Wagner Wesendonck Lieder, Mahler Symphony Nos. 2,3, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder and Kindertotenlieder, Elgar Dream of Gerontius, The Kingdom and Brahms Alto Rhapsody. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House in a production of Götterdämmerung as Second Norn under Bernard Haitink and has sung in Die Walküre at Bayreuth, in Tristan und Isolde (Brangäne) at the English National Opera (a role she also sang for San Francisco Opera). She appears regularly with Scottish Opera, for example as Waltraute/Götterdämmerung in complete Ring Cycle at the Edinburgh Festival and as Thea in Tippett's The Knot Garden. At the Lyric Opera of Chicago she appeared in 2007 as Mere Marie in Dialogues des Carmélites.
Ingo Metzmacher became Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in September 2007. He focuses on German music and the works from the beginning of the 20th century. His previous engagements include Principal Conductor of the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam (2005-2008) where he has staged e.g. Henze's Die Bassariden, Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Elektra by R.Strauss and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro. In 1997 he was appointed General Music Director of the Hamburg Opera House. Ingo Metzmacher has appeared at the opera houses of Dresden, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Zurich, Paris, and Los Angeles. Outside the opera field, Ingo Metzmacher has established relationships with the leading symphony orchestras of Europe and the USA including the San Francisco Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony and the Royal Concertgebow Orchestra. In 2003 and 2005 he conducted the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He conducted an orchestra project at the Salzburg Festival 2007. Further appearances in Salzburg as well as his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden are planned for 2009.