24/25 Season Finale by Balch, K., Mahler, lör 17 maj 2025, Från (2025/2025), Dirigent Earl Lee, Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, USA

“In which way I love you, my sunbeam, I cannot tell you with words. Only my longing, my love and my bliss, can I with anguish declare.” A love song to his beloved wife Alma, the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 continues to set the standard for musical tributes of adoration. Framing this remarkable movement are expressions of triumph and despair, all within a broader symphonic conception that marked the composer’s shift to “pure” instrumental music and the contrapuntal intensity of J.S. Bach. Music Director Earl Lee takes the podium to conduct this season-concluding concert, with Katherine Balch’s musica pyralis premiering as a co-commission in partnership with the New York Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Rosa Symphony, and the Erie Symphony, with support from New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices program.