Joyce DiDonato and Yannick Nézet‑Séguin to Go on Consecutive Three-Day Performances of Mahler’s Third Symphony Later This May

In just a week, world-renowned opera singer Joyce DiDonato will perform over three consecutive evenings Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 3 in D minor at Berliner Philharmonie’s main auditorium from May 21 to 23. 

DiDonato is shaping herself to be one of today’s best mezzo-sopranos. Just in January of this year, she released her recording of Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts’ song cycle Emily – No Prisoner Be, which set the poetry of Emily Dickinson to music.

Of course, we shouldn’t forgo praise for conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who will take on the herculean task of conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Ladies of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, and the Boys of the Staats-und Domchors Berlin through Mahler’s nearly two-hour-long choral-orchestral monolith of music. 

Described as a kind of musical creation story, Mahler says that the work “gives all of nature a voice.” Throughout the six-movement work, the composer paints a sonic picture of flora and fauna, before the voices of DiDonato, along with the angelic choral congregation of the Ladies of the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Boys of the Staats-und Domchors Berlin, introduce humanity into the picture.