Mahler 4 & Regula Mühlemann sings Mozart

It has not taken long for Swiss soprano Regula Mühlemann to conquer almost every major opera and concert stage. Audiences and critics alike praise her exceptionally beautiful timbre and deeply moving interpretations. At the well-known Wiener Staatsoper, she sang leading roles such as Susanna/Le nozze di Figaro, Adina/L'elisir d'amore and Blonde/Die Entführung aus dem Serail. She had also appeared in title roles at Milan's La Scala and the Staatsoper Berlin. In 2022, her portrayal of Pamina/Die Zauberflöte at the Salzburg Festival was particularly praised. Tonight, the audience at Bozar will hear this great voice for the first time, in the soprano solo of Mahler's Fourth Symphony and in arias by Mozart.

Mahler's Fourth Symphony opens with a powerful rhythmic motif played by sleigh bells mounted on a stick. While initially shaken slowly and calmly in the first movement, these bells take on a more aggressive tone in the fourth and final movement. A soprano summons a divine scene with a poem from the folk song collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The rhythmic motif disrupts this idyll by introducing a passage recounting the sacrifice of several animals for a feast. Mahler's Fourth Symphony follows a fairly traditional structure, lasting no more than an hour and featuring a rather reduced instrumentation. Late romantic pathos gives way to simplicity: a second movement with humor and a noble and fervent adagio touch the listener without resorting to romantic grandeur.

Part of the Mahler Cycle organised by the three federal institutions.

Created with the support of the Belgian Tax Shelter through Casa Kafka Pictures.