Type: Classical
Composer: Gustav Mahler
Program: Symphony No. 2 in C minor “Resurrection”
Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonie
Conductor: Pierre Boulez
Location: Staatskapelle Berlin
Year: 2005

Pierre Boulez approaches Symphony No. 2 very differently from the oversized emotional style often associated with Mahler performances. Rather than treating the “Resurrection” Symphony as pure spectacle, Boulez reveals the astonishing precision and modernity inside the score with shifting orchestral colors, sudden contrasts, eerie silences, and almost cinematic sense of scale. Boulez strips away sentimentality and allows Mahler’s architecture to emerge with clarity.