Mahler
Symphony No. 3
Saturday 31st May 2025 – 8pm at Inverness Cathedral
Sunday 1st June 2025 – 3pm at Strathpeffer Pavilion
The Mahler Players
Tomas Leakey conductor
Barbara Scott mezzo-soprano
Version for chamber orchestra prepared by Rob Farmer
“…imagine such a great work, in which in fact the whole world is mirrored – one is, so to speak, no more than an instrument on which the Universe plays. I tell you, in some places it strikes me even as uncanny; it seems as if I hadn’t written it at all.”
Mahler writing about his Third Symphony in 1896
On 31st May and 1st June 2025 we invite you to join us for the culmination of our 12-year love affair with the music of Gustav Mahler. Since our first concert in 2013 we have performed almost all of Mahler’s works. We now bring the project to its conclusion with two performances of the gigantic Third Symphony. Conceived as a musical picture of the natural world, it contains not only hugely varied music for the orchestra but also settings for the human voice. An excerpt from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra will be brought to life by mezzo-soprano Barbara Scott and our women’s chorus will perform Es sungen drei Engel, a vivacious setting of a German folk text.
Our new version for large chamber orchestra has been created by our principal horn, Rob Farmer, and it reduces the original forces of more than 100 players down to 45, while retaining all the essence of Mahler’s glorious music. The performances will be conducted by Mahler Players Music Director Tomas Leakey.
