"Just imagine a work of such magnitude that it actually mirrors the whole world - where one is, so to speak, only an instrument, played on by the universe…” wrote Gustav Mahler, in a letter written to his lover, the singer Anna von Mildenburg, while he was working on his Symphony No. 3 in the village of Steinbach on the shore of Lake Atter in Austria. "My symphony will be something the likes of which the world has never heard! In it, the whole of nature will be lent a voice, and it will im...part such deep secrets as those one might only imagine in one's dreams. Some passages in it seem so uncanny to me that I can hardly recognise them as my own work.”
The high standards that the composer set for himself are best illustrated by a humorous event that took place when the conductor Bruno Walter, a friend of Mahler's and one his greatest interpreters, arrived in Steinbach by steamboat. He was admiring the scenery when Mahler told him: "No need to look, I have composed all this already.” The composer spent three summers working on the symphony, which he finished in August 1896. The world première of this, his most expansive symphony, which lasts about an hour and a half and was written for orchestra, alto soloist, and a choir of boys and women, took place in Krefeld in 1902, with Mahler himself conducting.
Presented by: Budapest Festival Orchestra
Parking information
We wish to inform you that in the event that Müpa Budapest's underground garage and outdoor car park are operating at full capacity, it is advisable to plan for increased waiting times when you arrive. In order to avoid this, we recommend that you depart for our events in time, so that you you can find the ideal parking spot quickly and smoothly and arrive for our performance in comfort. The Müpa Budapest underground garage gates will be operated by an automatic number plate recognition system. Parking is free of charge for visitors with tickets to any of our paid performances on that given day. The detailed parking policy of Müpa Budapest is available here.
Safe ticket purchase
Dear Visitors, please note that only tickets purchased from the Müpa website and official ticket offices are guaranteed to be valid. To avoid possible inconvenience, we suggest buying tickets to our performances and concerts via the mupa.hu website, the Interticket national network (jegy.hu) or at our official ticket offices.