XU ZHONG CONDUCTS MAHLER 6
2026.06.20（SAT）19 : 30
Jinji Lake Concert Hall SCAC
Conductor XU Zhong
NOTICE TO AUDIENCE
1. DURATION Approximately 95 minutes with a 15-min intermission.
2. SUGGESTED AGE 8 and above.
3. Minimum height for children :1.3m.
Tonight’s concert will lead us to enjoy one of the darkest and most mind-blowing monuments in Gustav Mahler’s symphonic world – the Symphony No. 6 in A Minor. It is regarded as Mahler’s only major composition to conclude in a minor key and his most tragic and mysterious symphony. What is deeply thought-provoking is that Mahler composed this symphony during what appeared to be the “golden period” of his personal life – his career was at its peak, his family life was blissful, and his cherished daughter had just been born. Yet, he appeared to be haunted by a shadow as he poured his deepest personal fears towards fate and a sense of tension into the music. The work is full of suffocating oppression. Its signature “Fate Motif” or “Strike of Fate” often appears as suddenly and jarring. It often shifts from A major chords to gloomy A minor counterpart that is accompanied by a specific, relentless, driving rhythm, striking directly at the audience’s heartstrings. The Finale contains the most devastating moment. In this movement, Mahler unprecedently used actual “hammer smashes”. Those dull, brutal crashes are like axe chopping rather than metallic clangs. These three precisely placed hammer strikes symbolize inescapable punches from fate, forging this movement into one of the most devastating and revolutionary chapters in the entire symphonic literature. Mahler firmly believed that a symphony should encompass an entire “world”. In this symphony, he constructed such a world with incredibly rich musical language: here resides the struggling individual, the cruel hand of fate, moments of brief idyllic pastoral peace that vanish like blossoms, and unavoidable destruction. Nevertheless, it is impossible to ignore the glimpses of beauty in Mahler’s music world despite its gloomy atmosphere. The symphony is filled with melodies that are graceful and poignancy, such as the broad, passionate, and endless longing “Alma theme” (named after his wife) in the first movement, and the tender, calm, and melancholic passages in the Andante movement. These moments sparkle with a priceless, heartbreaking brilliance, just like a rainbow seen amid a raging storm.
