Mahler composed his Fifth Symphony in 1901 and 1902 and conducted the first performance in Cologne on October 18, 1904. Of all Mahler’s symphonies, this is the one most rooted in Viennese tradition. He stylistically swings every rhythm in the Viennese style, which is decidedly different from the German tradition. It is his first purely orchestral work since the First Symphony written in 1888 and his first orchestral work to dispense with both the human voice and programmatic elements. Mahler’s Fifth Symphony famously includes a love-poem and declaration of adoration for his wife Alma Schindler. The couple met on November 7, 1901 and after only three weeks the composer proposed marriage. They were married in less than four months.
The central reason for the lasting popularity of Mahler’s Symphony V is the ten-minute Adagietto that forms the fourth movement and which was most notoriously set to powerful use in the film Death in Venice. Additionally, it is the basis of the finale, and the two movements are often thought of as one long movement. The themes frequently return in different forms and shapes. The finale is truly the last symphonic movement Mahler wrote where there is obvious joy.
Haydn composed his Cello Concerto in C major between 1761 and 1765. The score was lost during the composer’s lifetime and only rediscovered in 1961. Until that time there was just one cello concerto, in D major known to have been written by Haydn. This work was treasured by audiences and cellists as a single work of its kind as neither of Haydn’s Viennese contemporaries Mozart nor Beethoven wrote cello concertos. It had been rumored that an earlier concerto in C major did exist, but was given up for lost. Then, in 1961, the archivist of the Prague National Museum, uncovered parts for the C major cello concerto, apparently written by Joseph Weigl, the principal cellist in Haydn’s orchestra from 1761 to 1768. It was performed on May 19, 1962, in Prague, by Radio Symphony. In Wroclaw, the concert will be performed by Nicolas Altstaedt, who plays a unique period instrument which was built in the time of Haydn.