Symphony No. 7

Jaap van Zweden & Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Conductor Jaap van Zweden has a long and close relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During the Mahler Festival, they will perform the Sixth (yesterday) and Seventh Symphony (today). The latter is 'the most difficult Mahler for both the orchestra, the conductor and the audience,' Van Zweden told de Volkskrant. 'The whole symphony sits between dream and reality.'

Mahler's Symphony No. 7

'Predominantly joyful in character', Mahler himself described his Seventh Symphony. This is contrasted by an opposite nickname of the piece: 'Lied der Nacht'. Of the five movements, two are so-called 'night music'. While many sleep, others lie restlessly awake, listening to animals active in the dark, to the marching pace of the bloodstream. The contrasting piece of music is right up Van Zweden's alley. He serves it up as a 'subtle sampling of colours', wrote NRC.