CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra will close its 2018-2019 season with a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 20, at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

The performance will be conducted by Marlan Carlson, music director and professor of music at OSU. It will be held in the Austin Auditorium at The LaSells Stewart Center, 875 SW 26th Street, Corvallis.

Mahler returned to Austria in spring 1909 and began composing what would become his final completed symphony. A deep sadness pervaded Mahler’s life at the time. Only two years prior, his oldest daughter had died from scarlet fever and his marriage had become intensely unhappy.

The four stylistically disparate movements paint portraits of the Mahler’s pain and suffering. He died two years later, at the age of 50, of heart disease.­­

“While the inner two movements of the Mahler 9th Symphony are uncomplicatedly forthright, the very extended first and last movements are perhaps the most profoundly enigmatic of anything he ever composed,” Carlson said. “In so many ways I see this work as Mahler’s valedictory comment on his own life as well as on a centuries old European musical culture that was irrevocably snared in the same forces that subsequently resulted in the political, social and artistic revolutions that were about to plunge European civilization into a whole range of cataclysmic changes, most notably the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution.”

The ninth symphony was not performed during Mahler’s lifetime. Bruno Walter, who championed Mahler’s work after the composer’s death in 1911, conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in its premiere in 1912.

Tickets are $22, $27 and $32 for reserved seats. They are available online at www.cosusymphony.org. Up to three K-8 students accompanied by a ticketed adult, and all high school and college students with ID, may be given free general admission tickets at the door starting one hour prior to the concert, subject to availability.

Corvallis Arts For All discounts apply with a valid SNAP card, and are available one hour prior to the performance at the LaSells Stewart Center. For accommodations relating to a disability please call 541-286-5580, preferably one week in advance.

College of Liberal Arts

About the OSU College of Liberal Arts: The College of Liberal Arts encompasses seven distinct schools, as well as several interdisciplinary initiatives, that focus on humanities, social sciences, and fine and performing arts. Curriculum developed by the college’s nationally and internationally-renowned faculty prepares students to approach the complex problems of the world ethically and thoughtfully, contributing to a student's academic foundation and helping to build real-world skills for a 21st century career and a purposeful life.

Source: 

Zachary C. Person, 541-737-4671, [email protected]

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