Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra

»It has the joviality of a higher, foreign world – and we therefore comprehend it as terrible and unearthly.« This is what Gustav Mahler said about Giuseppe Verdi’s »Quattro pezzi sacri« in 1901, the year of the Italian composer’s death. Verdi had acquired fame largely on the basis of his operas, but towards the end of his life he returned to sacred music: »Let us return to the old ways, that will be progress,« Verdi had written in 1871. In his »Quattro pezzi sacri«, Verdi views the world and human life as if in a dream: the piece is characterised by a deep peacefulness and a heartfelt conciliatory harmony. There is surely no better complement to this dreamy atmosphere than Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.