Civic Plays Mahler 1

Monday, May 4, 2026

The opening chapter in Mahler’s symphonic cycle doesn’t hold back. A radiant musical sunrise sets the stage for thumping folk dances, hunting scenes, a funeral procession and a storm-tossed finale that ends with a blaze of brass. Ken-David Masur begins the program with the jubilant prelude to the first act from Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Takemitsu’s Visions , inspired by paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago and both commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1990.