Karina Canellakis conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 4

Karina Canellakis, chief conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, has repeatedly demonstrated her mastery of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies. NowitistheturnoftheFourth Symphony. She frames it appropriately with songs by Alban Berg and a moody short piece by Kaija Saariaho.

Innocence
Mahler’sFourth Symphonyis known for its relatively small ensemble and optimistic character. The composer pays tribute to the idyllic beauty of the Austrian mountain landscape and evokes an image of the innocence of youth. But Mahler wouldn’t be Mahler if he didn’t also strike a very different note. In the Scherzo, a violin plays a “danse macabre.”

Spiritual Foundation
Although the sung finale was added at a later stage, it forms the spiritual foundation upon which the symphony rests.“Das himmliche Leben” from*Des Knaben Wunderhorn*is a hymn of praise to the paradisiacal afterlife. German soprano Julia Kleiter performs this lyrical final movement. She interprets, in Mahler’s words, ‘the cheerfulness of a higher world unknown to us’.