Mahler and Strauss in Seville

It might sound strange to trade an evening of tapas or flamenco in Seville for a concert of works by two central European composers, but sometimes a program is too good to pass up. Tonight, the Royal Seville Symphony Orchestra performed Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, so I found myself walking toward the Teatro de la Maestranza—new to both the orchestra and the hall, and curious what the evening would bring.

The concert hall sits beside the Guadalquivir River in the heart of Seville. It’s large but unusually wide, creating a sense of intimacy with the stage. The program notes doubled as a quiet test of my Spanish.

Opening the evening, Strauss’s luminous Four Last Songs invite reflection in a way that feels especially natural while traveling. After intermission came Mahler’s Fifth, a work that seems to contain entire worlds, dizzying in its textures and rhythms. The music rarely settles, constantly pulling itself in new directions—except in the lyrical Adagietto, which is closer in tone to the Strauss songs.

The applause at the end was rapturous—far more enthusiastic than I’m used to hearing in New York, even at places like Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall.