More than 2,500 people enjoyed the live concert at the Basilica of Santa Maria of the Abbey of Montserrat, conducted by Josep Pons and featuring the Orchestra and Choir of the Liceu, with the participation of the Orfeó Català. The Liceu joined the celebration of the Millennium of Montserrat with Gustav Mahler’s monumental Second Symphony under the baton of Maestro Josep Pons, a former Montserrat choirboy and Mahler specialist. Josep Pons has been one of the few conductors invited by Universal Edition, publisher of Gustav Mahler’s music, to review the new editions. The concert concluded with Klopstock’s triumphant hymn, a symbol of hope and spiritual transcendence in Mahler’s music.
Before the opening of the season, the Liceu returned to Montserrat with an exceptional proposal: the Liceu Orchestra and Choir, together with the Orfeó Català, under the baton of Josep Pons, performed Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor Auferstehung (Resurrection) at the Millennium Music Festival, in the Basilica of Santa Maria of Montserrat.
To bring it to life, Josep Pons counted on the Choir and Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, joined by the Orfeó Català, Kai Glausteen (concertmaster), and the voices of Katharina Konradi (soprano) and Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo-soprano), an artistic lineup equal to the demands of a work that can be described as monumental, blending intimacy and choral grandeur at its finest.
With his Second Symphony (1894), Mahler signed a vast work, full of contrasts and of an unprecedented dramatic scale. The combination of soloists, choir, and orchestra becomes a journey of the soul from death to resurrection, a musical experience of extraordinary power. It is a symphonic work imbued with spirituality that evokes resurrection, revival, rebirth, resilience, hope, and the future.
Mahler combines soloists, choir, and orchestra in a score of unparalleled dramatic scale. After Beethoven’s death, many composers felt intimidated by the master’s legacy and avoided the symphonic genre, but Mahler dared to take it further with a gigantic Second Symphony: eighty minutes divided into five movements, an orchestration of unusual dimensions, and a palette of colors that builds a profoundly moving narrative.
Josep Pons, a former Montserrat choirboy and devoted advocate of Mahler, has been one of the few conductors invited by Universal Edition, the publishing house of Gustav Mahler’s music, to review the new editions, identifying more than five hundred errors –alongside Abbado, Mehta, Barenboim, Boulez, Dudamel, Gergiev, Jansons, and Rattle.
The Liceu and Montserrat share a very special bond. Emerging from the pandemic, on September 20, 2020, a concert entitled From Pain to Hope was held, symbolizing the power of music as a path to collective healing.
As a musical metaphor, Josep Pons, at the helm of the permanent musical ensembles of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, wished to include Mahler’s Resurrection in the celebrations of the Millennium of the Montserrat Monastery. A thousand years of history have made the Benedictine monastery much more than an abbey on the mountain: a cultural and spiritual symbol embracing devotion to the Virgin of Montserrat, patroness of Catalonia, and making fundamental contributions in fields such as culture, language, and above all, music.
The concert concluded with the fifth movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony, with choir and orchestra performing Klopstock’s hymn—an apotheosis celebrating resurrection and confronting mortality in a profound and moving way.
With the collaboration of:
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