The Met Orchestra

Mahler's and Bruckner’s deep personal emotions are masterfully expressed with gestures both large and small. Mahler’s Rückert Lieder contemplate love, life, and death with delicate scoring—solo instruments are used sparingly for effect—and subtle vocal writing. Bruckner emotes on a larger scale in a superbly crafted symphony that awes with its sweeping breadth, drama, and soaring lyricism. The work energizes with its robust Scherzo and jubilant finale, but its emotional core is the second-movement Adagio, a breathtaking memorial to his idol, Wagner.