RPO 22-23 SEASON FINALE TONIGHT & SATURDAY
Music Director Andreas Delfs conducts Mahler’s “Resurrection”
Rehearsal b-roll, sound bites & photos here
Rochester, NY – Your Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) will close its 99th season with one of the greatest symphonies of all time – Mahler’s “Resurrection” – tonight, Thursday, June 1 at 7:30 PM and Saturday, June 3 at 8 PM in Kodak Hall (a pre-concert talk takes place one hour prior to curtain each evening). Music Director Andreas Delfs conducts this Season Finale, which also features the Rochester Oratorio Society (Eric Townell, Director).
Completed in 1894, Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony was the first significant work to explore his lifelong perspectives of the afterlife, and it established him as a leading composer of his day. An all-embracing work, it is the first of Mahler’s symphonies to use voices, words and orchestra to create a musical experience that stays with audiences far beyond the concert hall.
“Very few works in our repertoire can unleash the awesome power of spiritual renewal the way that Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony does,” says Maestro Delfs. “The whole depth of the human experience and the entire breadth and width of a life fully lived are concentrated within a single symphony. These performances will fill your emotional tank so profoundly that the long stretch until our singular centennial season begins will feel like joyful anticipation of great things to come.”
Music Director Delfs has a request of this week’s attendees as well, as they look back on the COVID-19 pandemic:
“In the manuscript for Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the conductor receives this direction from the composer: ‘Hier folgt eine Pause von 5 Minuten!’ or ‘Here follows a pause of 5 minutes!’ I believe Mahler intended this interval as time for audiences to reflect on the life-and-death questions raised in the first movement before continuing into the gentle second movement which he called ‘Echoes of Bygone Days.’ I respectfully ask that we use this pause to remember those who have passed during these difficult last three-and-a-half years.”
Tickets for all RPO Kodak Hall shows start at $24/$12 for children ages 3-17 and are available online anytime at rpo.org, by phone at 585-454-2100, and in person at RPO Patron Services at 225 East Avenue (Monday-Friday, 10 AM-5 PM) and one hour prior to curtain at the Eastman Theatre Box Office (433 East Main St.). RPO Centennial Season (2023-24) subscriptions are now on sale at https://rpo.org/subscribe/. COVID protocols: vaccinations are no longer required to attend concerts and masking is currently optional.
The RPO thanks Season Sponsor M&T Bank, Pops Series Sponsors Canandaigua National Bank & Wegmans, and Special Series Sponsor Pittsford Federal Credit Union. RPO performances are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. The RPO is supported in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABOUT THE RPO: The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has been committed to enriching and inspiring our community through the art of music since its origins in 1922. The RPO presents approximately 150 concerts and broadcasts a year, serving up to 170,000 people through ticketed events, education and community engagement activities, and concerts in schools and community centers throughout the region. Andreas Delfs was named music director in 2020 following notable RPO music directors Erich Leinsdorf, David Zinman, Mark Elder and Conductor Laureate Christopher Seaman. Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik, now in his 29th season, has earned a national reputation for excellence in pops programming during his tenure with the RPO. The RPO reaches more than 15,000 youth through its specific education programs.