Jaap van Zweden

It has been an incredible 40 years since the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last performed in a ProArte concert. It is therefore high time to present America’s finest orchestra, one of the most traditional orchestras in the USA, to the ProArte audience at the Elbphilharmonie. As proven Mahler specialists, the musicians from Chicago make a substantial contribution to our season focus: according to Jaap van Zweden, Mahler’s 7th Symphony lies »exactly on the border between dream and reality« and is therefore one of the most demanding works – for conductor and orchestra alike. The path leads through night to light of the jubilant finale of the symphony, which the busy court opera director Mahler once again put to paper in his summer retreat on Lake Wörthersee. »At the first stroke of the oar, the theme [...] of the introduction to the first movement came to mind.«