MTT Conducts Mahler’s Seventh Symphony

May 16, 17 & 18, 2019

Overview

From searing to joyful, intimate to haunting, Mahler's shadowy universe is channeled by the infinitely expressive San Francisco Symphony in this dramatic sonic excursion. Winner of two Grammy Awards for their recording of the Seventh Symphony, MTT and the San Francisco Symphony return to this epic work for one of the most exciting concert events of the year.

Concert Extras

Inside Music: an informative talk by Peter Grunberg, begins one hour prior to concerts. Free to ticketholders. Learn More

Inside Music lecture begins at 7:00pm with doors opening at 6:45pm

MAHLER
Symphony No. 7 1905 | 80 mins
In June 1905, Mahler headed back to his summer residence at Maiernigg, on Austria’s Wörther See, to continue work on his Seventh Symphony. He could not find the way into the composition. He took off for the Dolomites, hoping to release his creative energies, but nothing happened. Profoundly depressed, he returned. He stepped from the train and was rowed across the lake. With the first dipping of the oars into the water, he recalled later, “the theme of the introduction (or rather, its rhythm, its atmosphere) came to me.”

He described his Seventh Symphony, which is sometimes subtitled Song of the Night, as having a symmetrical structure: three night pieces (a genre in which Mahler excelled), with a finale representing bright day, and a first movement as foundation for the whole. Indeed, the first and last movements flank three character pieces, which are themselves symmetrical in that the first and third are called Nachtmusik. The opening is music in which we may hear not only the stroke of oars, but the suggestion of a solemn procession. The first Nachtmusik is a nocturnal patrol (possibly inspired by Rembrandt’s so-called Night Watch), the second is a magical serenade. The middle character piece is a ghostly parody of a waltz. The Finale is a wild and wonderful movement with adroit and wittily inventive references to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger.

At the Seventh's premiere, the Nachtmusiken and the Scherzo made their effect at once; the first and last movements were harder nuts to crack. That has not changed substantially with the years and the Seventh is still perhaps the least known of Mahler's symphonies.

Mahler’s Seventh is a victory symphony, not a personal narrative but a journey from night to day. The focus is on nature—on the world humans inhabit more than on humans themselves. Read More

Steven Ziegler is Managing Editor at the San Francisco Symphony.

Artists

Michael Tilson Thomas

Conductor

San Francisco Symphony

Program

Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 7

Podcast

Mahler's Symphony No. 7

All sound clips are from San Francisco Symphony performances and are used with permission of the SFS Players Committee.

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MTT Conducts Mahler’s Seventh Symphony

Conductor

Michael Tilson Thomas is the Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and cofounder and artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony. He is a 12-time Grammy Award winner and has conducted the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.

Born in Los Angeles, he studied conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California and as a young musician worked with artists including Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. In his mid-20s, he became assistant conductor—and later principal guest conductor—of the Boston Symphony. He subsequently served as music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and principal conductor of the London Symphony.

In 1987 he cofounded the New World Symphony, a postgraduate orchestral academy in Miami Beach dedicated to preparing young musicians of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles in classical music. He has worked with more than 1,200 NWS fellows, many of whom have gone on to major musical careers.

MTT became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, ushering in a period of significant growht and heightened international recognition for the orchestra. He led the Symphony in championing contemporary and American composers alongside classical masters, and as Music Director Laureate, he has returned to conduct the orchestra each season.

His discography includes more than 120 recordings, and his television work includes series for the BBC and PBS, the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts, and numerous televised performances. “Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is” aired on PBS’s American Masters series in fall 2020.

Throughout his career, he has been an active composer, with major works including From the Diary of Anne Frank, premiered with narrator Audrey Hepburn, and Meditations on Rilke. Both appear on SFS Media’s Grammy Award-winning recording of his music. In 2023, Yuja Wang released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon which included his You Come Here Often?
He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, a member of the American Academies of Arts and Sciences and Arts and Letters, a National Medal of Arts recipient, and a 2019 Kennedy Center honoree.

Three major recording projects were released in 2024 in celebration of his 80th birthday: Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas on Pentatone; The Complete Columbia, CBS, and RCA Recordings on Sony Classical; and Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings on DG Eloquence.