Later this month the Ulster Orchestra will say a fond goodbye to its music director, Daniele Rustioni, with a performance of one of the largest and most exhilarating symphonies ever written.
Mahler’s Symphony No 2, Resurrection, is epic in every sense of the word, a dramatic, emotional outpouring around the composer’s contemplation of the human condition, beginning with a sombre contemplation of death and climaxing with orchestra, soloists and chorus united in a spine-tingling hymn of resurrection. (It was meticulously re-created in Maestro, Bradley Cooper’s recent biopic of the conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein.)
It will be a fitting farewell to the Milan-born conductor, who was appointed its chief conductor in 2019, was made music director in 2022, and will from next season be its music director laureate.
Dynamic and charismatic, he successfully confronted the challenge of the pandemic by overseeing a new repertoire, a return to the BBC Proms, in London, and a tour in Austria, which included a memorable concert in Anton Bruckner’s home city of Linz.
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“My memories of Belfast are of a vibrant city with an extraordinary audience,” he says. “We led them through the crisis of the Covid, and I vividly remember how, little by little, they embraced us. I loved the atmosphere around the Ulster Hall, which has long been a wonderful concert venue. We covered a lot of repertoire and did a number of collaborations with great soloists and artists. Some of the music was fantastic: it touched heaven.
“As to the future, being Italian, it is always a benediction and a malediction. I will conduct less opera, maybe two or three main productions a season, in some of the world’s top opera houses. I will come back to the Ulster Orchestra in my new role, hopefully every season. And I will have a baby in a couple of weeks, so I will combine some guest conducting with time at home to study, raise my young daughter and support my wonderful wife,” he says, referring to Francesca Dego, the Italian-American violinist.
[ Daniele Rustioni: ‘Opera was in my DNA’ Opens in new window ]
The orchestra’s artistic director, Patrick McCarthy, recalls the early impact of Rustioni’s appointment. “From our first rehearsal it was clear that we were about to embark on a thrilling journey together.
“Daniele has a rare ability to make an orchestra really listen to itself, while giving space for musicians to express themselves. They trust him completely, and that’s meant he’s able to take risks in concerts; every performance feels fresh and energised. He’s taken audiences to incredible heights, and finds real emotional depth in everything he does.
“Performances of Mahler’s Second Symphony are once in a generation in the North. There’ll be 200 performers on stage, two superstar singers, a world-class conductor, and a piece which scales emotional highs and lows like nothing else. Mahler said that a symphony should ‘embrace everything’, and that’s certainly true of this one.”
The Ulster Orchestra performs Resurrection at the Ulster Hall, Belfast, on Friday, May 24th
