An edition “of legend”, as the motto of the 40th International Music Festival of Canarias (FIMC) states, could not close without a top-level proposal: none other than the Philharmonic della Scala, one of the world’s most renowned ensembles, created 40 years ago by Claudio Abbado, will be responsible for placing the final notes on a festival that has provided unforgettable moments, and which closes this week in Gran Canaria and Tenerife with a cult work: Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.
The Milanese orchestra returns 20 years after its first appearance at the festival. On that occasion, it performed under the baton of the great conductor Ricardo Muti, who is now replaced by another acclaimed conductor, the Korean maestro Myun Whun Chung, who has worked with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras. The concerts will be this evening at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Gran Canaria, at 8:00 p.m. -preceded by a pre-concert talk an hour earlier-; and tomorrow at the Tenerife Auditorium.
Mahler’s Fifth is undoubtedly the composer’s most popular symphony, partly due to the film Death in Venice by Lucchino Visconti, which includes his Adagietto for strings and harps in the soundtrack. It is the most optimistic work in his symphonic cycle. In it, Mahler brings together his most recurrent obsessions: death, love, exaltation of nature, rural landscapes, or folk music.
