Mahler’s 10th Symphony – A Love Letter in Music

15 AUG 2025: Mahler’s unfinished 10th Symphony opens the Lucerne Festival – live on ARTE Concert with Riccardo Chailly and Elīna Garanča.

In the summer of 1910, Gustav Mahler’s world collapsed: his daughter had died, his heart was failing, and he discovered his wife Alma’s affair with architect Walter Gropius. His despair echoes in the marginal notes of his unfinished 10th Symphony: “Have mercy! O God, why have you forsaken me?” The music is raw, personal, and painful – a final love letter to Alma.

Mahler died before he could complete the work, leaving behind five movements in various stages of completion. Alma later entrusted the drafts to musicologist Deryck Cooke, who created a performance version in 1964.

In his internationally acclaimed interpretations of Mahler’s symphonies, Riccardo Chailly focuses on the musical quality of the works, avoiding false pathos and sentimentality while retaining the music’s dramatic intensity. Together with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, he opens this year’s summer festival with Mahler’s poignant, unfinished 10th Symphony and Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder.

Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly, conductor
Elīna Garanča, mezzo-soprano

Pierre Boulez (1925–2016)
Mémoriale (… explosante-fixe … Originel) for flute and eight instruments

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
Rückert-Lieder
Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major (Performance version by Deryck Cooke)

Live on ARTE Concert
August 15, 2025 | 18:30
Concert Hall, KKL Lucerne

A 4K HDR Production of Accentus Music
In Cooperation with Arte G.E.I.E., SRG, SRF & Mezzo