There was a steady stream of audience members racing up two flights of stairs to get the coveted first balcony spots — it’s the best sound in the theatre, one audience member said. But the first balcony was full, the doors to the second were locked and nobody thought it was worth the effort to walk up to the third. So, the group worked its way down the six flights of stairs it had just finished walking up, forewarning unexpecting attendees who hadn’t got the memo to change direction.
They filed into the orchestra seats instead, filling them from the very back row to the front where someone’s nose could practically touch the stage.
It didn’t really matter who got what seat, they were still filled. Almost every seat of the over 1000 in the Musical Arts Center had an occupant who came to see Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 2,” known colloquially as “Resurrection,” performed by the Jacobs School of Music’s Concert Orchestra and Oratorio Chorus.
The crowded nature of the audience was mirrored almost exactly on the MAC stage, which was filled with more musicians and instruments than one would think possible. Mahler often used large orchestras when composing. Many of his pieces require an 80-person orchestra, but his second and eighth symphonies require even more musicians as they both have massive choral parts written within them. His eighth symphony has been given the nickname “The Symphony of a Thousand” because of its large size.
While “Symphony No. 2” hasn’t been given that same nickname, it is still a massive production. Abra Bush, Jacobs School of Music David Henry Jacobs bicentennial dean, said there were 300 musicians onstage and called them some of “most talented musicians in this country and around the globe.”
“It is remarkable that a school of music can pull off an accomplishment like this and not shut the whole place down,” Bush said. “Meanwhile, we've been able to do this while we're in production weeks of ‘Carmen’ and the Latin Jazz Ensemble and so much more.”
When writing “Resurrection,” Mahler was inspired by themes of life and death. Many have noted since its release that the symphony starts in a darker tone and resolves at a lighter one, with its finale being one of the most known segments of the symphony. The piece had a resurgence of popularity when conductor Leonard Bernstein conducted a version of it in 1987 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which was included in the 2023 biopic about Bernstein.
Second-year master's student Camden Daly was first introduced to “Symphony No. 2” in that scene. Daly is a film scoring student who is a Bass I in the Oratorio Chorus.
“I didn’t even know much about this piece until the biopic came out,” Daly said. “That was the first experience I had. Then, a couple weeks ago, Jamie Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein’s daughter, came into the career office and I got to meet her and we were talking about the biopic and I told her we were doing ‘Mahler 2’ soon.”
Daly only learned about the concert recently, and emailed Chris Albanese, the choral director of the concert, three times to ask about being a part of the performance. Daly said “Symphony No. 2” is the kind of piece where if a performer is lucky enough to perform it, they should take the chance.
Jeffrey Meyer conducted the almost 90-minute symphony. Meyer serves as co-chair of the Jacobs Department of Orchestral Conducting and is a professor of the topic.
“Mahler was such an amazing composer for orchestra, like nobody writes for orchestra that way,” he said. “This piece is often one of the pieces that makes a musician want to be a musician or makes a musician want to stay a musician.”
The Oratorio Chorus is the ensemble that often joins the Jacobs orchestras when they perform at the MAC. It is primarily made up of University Chorale members. The chorus of more than 100 sat quietly on risers situated at the back of the stage for most of the show. In the fifth movement, the finale, they began singing and rose to their feet for a triumphant finish. One girl in the audience leaned on the railing of the first balcony, her arms crossed, as if she couldn’t be close enough to the music.
Mahler’s second symphony is often performed at about 80- 90 minutes in length with five acts — a standard symphony with four is around an hour long. Despite its duration, the audience remained attentive and gave a six-minute standing ovation at the conclusion of the symphony, requiring Meyer and other performers to exit the stage twice before the lights turned on.
“This piece has power,” Meyer said. “Somehow, even though it’s an hour and a half long, it grips you from the beginning to the very end. Very few pieces do that. In fact, very few things in our world do that, so I think there’s a thirst for that and people turn up.”
