Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 5 is the only work on the programme of the concert of Saturday, 22 November, 2025, of the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra.
It was chosen by Bernhard Gueller, whose career in Cape Town is being crowned that night with the official title of Conductor Laureate for Life. Gueller, who has been conducting in Cape Town since 1994, made Devil’s Peak in South Africa his home in 1998 and from 2002 to 2018 shared it with Nova Scotia in Canada where he was music director. He was made principal guest conductor of the CPO in 2016.
85 Musicians onstage
The 70 minute symphony, which will have a force of 85 musicians on the stage, is the only work on the programme. It is not only a showcase for an orchestra, but a showcase for the principal trumpet and principal horn, who have major solos. With five movements, its adagietto is widely known through the film Death in Venice. It was written in the summers of 1901 and 1902 at his holiday cottage on Lake Wörth in Carinthia, in Austria.
A Mahler specialist
For Gueller, a known Mahler specialist, with a Mahler symphony, an orchestra can truly demonstrate its quality and this symphony is a good example of how to handle complex and highly emotional music. Almost no other composer used the orchestra like he did. His symphonies are always full of emotional excesses and the last movement of the 5th Symphony is atyplical for Mahler – it is full of sheer joy.
There is a pre-concert talk by Albert Combrink at 18:45 which is open to concertgoers.
Tickets for this symphony which begins at 19:30 can be bought at Webtickets here or at Artscape Dial-A-Seat 021 421 7695. Tickets for the dress rehearsal at 11 am on the same day can be bought here.
What: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 5
When: Saturday, 22 November 2025
Who: Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra Bernhard Gueller conducts
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