Elbphilharmonie
Klaus Mäkelä
Johanna Wallroth Gustav Mahler
Thomas Larcher

Gustav Mahler wrote his Symphony no. 4 based on one of his songs, Das himmlische Leben - "The heavenly life." The lyrics are a child's description of heaven, found in one of Mahler's most important sources of inspiration: Des knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of german folk poetry. The song, which the soprano performs in the fourth movement, is the foundation for the three previous movements. Symphony No. 4 is Mahler's shortest and brightest symphony and has been an entry gate for many Mahler enthusiasts since its premiere in 1901.

A cenotaph is a monument or an empty grave in memory of someone lost and assumed dead. Such memorials have been erected from antiquity to our own time. Thomas Larcher (b. 1963) had the many refugees that drowned in flight over the Mediterranean Sea in mind when he named his Symphony no. 2 Cenotaph. The symphony was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016. Thomas Larcher is a concert pianist who focused on the piano early in his composer career but later broadened his work to include orchestral music and operas.