SMS 1: Catharsis

Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra

Programme: 
Gustav Mahler, arr. Deryck Cooke: Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major 

On discovering the affair between his wife Alma and the young architect Walter Gropius, Gustav Mahler’s world collapsed. The realisation that love may never have really existed for him drove him to the brink of madness. The composer expressed all of this and much more in music in the first movement of the Tenth Symphony, as well as in the sketches for the other movements, which were later masterfully completed by Deryck Cooke. In the end, reality triumphs over illusion and compassion defeats jealousy, as the symphony ultimately reverses its course and leads to redemption through forgiveness and the discovery of a deeper truth that lies beyond one’s own ego.