Name: Beethoven's Ninth — Mahler's Version · MahlerFest 39
Start: 2026-05-16T19:30:00-06:00
Location: Macky Auditorium

$Beethoven's Ninth \u2014 Mahler's Version \u00b7 MahlerFest 39$

Beethoven's Ninth is one of the most performed symphonies in history. But you've never heard it quite like this.
When Mahler conducted Beethoven's Ninth, he didn't just interpret it — he retouched it. Rebalanced the orchestration. Sharpened the logic. Made it serve the meaning of the score rather than the conventions of the time. The result is a Beethoven's Ninth that feels both familiar and startlingly alive.
That's the centerpiece of this extraordinary Saturday evening but it's only part of the story.
The program opens with Bach's Fantasia & Fugue in C minor in Elgar's radical orchestral transcription, a melding of two great creative minds across centuries. And between Bach and Beethoven comes something genuinely historic: the world premiere of Symphony No. 11 by Steve Elcock, commissioned through the Burton Commissioning Fund a self-taught composer whose work belongs on the same program as these giants.
Kenneth Woods conducts the MahlerFest Orchestra and Boulder Concert Chorale, with soloists Hannah Benson, April Fredrick, Brennen Guillory, and Andrew Konopak.
A pre-concert discussion with Kenneth Woods begins at 6:30 PM.