Mahler's Inner Circle

Wednesday – Sunday: Noon – 6:00pm
Monday – Tuesday: Closed*
Calls: (925) 943-7469
Walk Up: 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
*In addition to the hours noted, the Ticket Office is also open one hour prior and thirty minutes after curtain for ticketed performances, including performances on Mondays, Tuesdays, and most City holidays.
featuring Sara Couden, contralto
March 25 - 26, 2023
Zemlinsky—Lustspiel Overture
Alma Mahler—Five Songs
Rott—Symphony No. 1
Running Time: approx. 1 hour 55 minutes, with one intermission
- Alexander Zemlinsky fell in love with his composition student Alma Schindler, but she rejected him and married Gustav Mahler. Lustspiel Overture’s lush melodies echo those of Brahms, who was a supporter of the young Zemlinsky.
- Alma Schindler was an accomplished composer before she gave it up to marry Gustav Mahler. Within a few years, unfulfilled and depressed, she had an affair, which prompted Gustav to take Alma’s musical ambitions more seriously. These five songs were the only works by Alma Mahler to be published in her husband’s lifetime.
- Hans Rott and Gustav Mahler were classmates and roommates in late 1870s Vienna but their fortunes diverged soon after, and Rott died in an asylum at age 25. Rott’s one and only completed symphony—receiving its California premiere here—bears many similarities to Mahler’s works, and scholars are only now uncovering Rott’s enormous influence on his celebrated friend.