PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS CONCERT DOES NOT TAKE PLACE AT THE FIDELIO CAFE
The Fidelio Orchestra presents a performance of Mahler’s sixth symphony preceded by a conversation and Q&A with the public.
Dealing with the Tragic in Life: Mahler, Judaism and Beyond
A pre-concert conversation with Raffaello Morales, Edward Seckerson and Anthony Freud
Mahler's Sixth Symphony is often known as the "Tragic". Yet it was composed during one of the happiest periods of the composer's life. Why, then, did Mahler return so insistently to questions of suffering, fate and loss? And what can his music teach us about how we confront tragedy?
Before Fidelio Orchestra's performance of this extraordinary work, join Raffaello Morales, Edward Seckerson and Anthony Freud for a conversation exploring the power of art to illuminate life's darkest experiences.
Born into a Jewish family in nineteenth-century Bohemia and living in a Europe marked by social and cultural upheaval, Mahler wrestled throughout his life with questions of identity, belonging, faith and meaning. These concerns find powerful expression in his music, which moves between hope and despair, tenderness and violence, transcendence and catastrophe.
Taking Mahler's Sixth Symphony as a starting point, this discussion will explore how artists respond to suffering, whether tragedy can deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world, and why Mahler's vision continues to resonate so strongly in our own uncertain times.
Speakers
Raffaello Morales is founder and artistic director of Fidelio Orchestra and Fidelio Café. Trained as both a classical pianist and a physicist, he holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from King's College London and is the author of The Earth to the Skies.
Edward Seckerson is a writer, broadcaster and podcaster with an obsession about Gustav Mahler. In his life he has interviewed everybody from Lenny Bernstein to Liza Minelli, from Paul McCartney to Julie Andrews. On television, he has commentated at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition on a number of occasions. He has published books on Gustav Mahler and the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and has been one of Gramophone Magazine‘s review panel for many years.
Anthony Freud has had a long career as a music manager, running institutions such as Sadler’s Wells, Welsh National Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera. He has a predilection for the music of Gustav Mahler and would take Mahler’s third symphony to a desert island as his only music.
The event is co-promoted by the Jewish Literary Foundation.
