Mahler: The End and the Beginning

About the event

Mahler: The End and the Beginning — a special concert by the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw conducted by Yaroslav Shemet. 14 March 2026 — the Witold Lutosławski Polish Radio Concert Studio will become the site of an extraordinary musical encounter. The Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, conducted by one of the most interesting young-generation conductors, Yaroslav Shemet, will present the programme “Mahler: The End and the Beginning”. Tickets: https://www.bilety24.pl/.../682-mahler-koniec-i-poczatek... The evening is constructed as an emotional retrospective. The programme will open with the visionary Adagio from the 10th Symphony — the composer’s last, unfinished work — a fragile record of fear but also of extraordinary beauty. In the second part there will be a violent turn toward vitality: we will hear the monumental Symphony No. 1 in D major “Titan”. This juxtaposition allows one to experience Mahler “in reverse” — from the wisdom of farewell to the youthful, revolutionary force of the “beginning”. “We begin from the end to feel the birth and the new beginning even more strongly. This is a programme about the cycle of life and the indomitable human spirit. Yaroslav Shemet, with his charisma, vitality and above all deep reflection on Mahler’s music, is the ideal partner to show this path,” says Kajetan Prochyra, Director of the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw. About the works: Adagio from the 10th Symphony — a whisper from the abyss. This is music written on the border of worlds. The Adagio is the only fully completed movement of Mahler’s last symphony, created during a deep personal crisis and fear of the inevitable end. The piece strikes with modernity — the famous, terrifying nine-note chord at the climactic moment sounds like a cry that cannot be put into words. This is a mystical Mahler, reconciled with fate but still searching for meaning in suffering. In Yaroslav Shemet’s interpretation this farewell gains an almost cinematic tension, becoming a study of human fragility. Symphony No. 1 in D major “Titan” — a manifesto of life. In the second part of the evening we move back to the moment when everything began. “Titan” is an explosion of youthful self-confidence and wonder at the world. Mahler leads us into a forest full of bird calls, only to sweep us shortly after into a whirl of folk dances and an ironic funeral march based on the “Panie Janie” motif. The symphony’s finale is a powerful, triumphant victory of light over darkness. It is a work that revolutionized the symphony orchestra, giving it a new, almost physical striking power — ideal for Shemet’s dynamic conducting style.