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The Intercultural Power of Music
- Mauritius Wijffels
- Jun 15
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 12
Very recently, Gustav Mahler's Resurrection Symphony filled the TivoliVredenburg music hall in Utrecht, Netherlands, with profoundly universal music that created a powerful intercultural experience.
Performed by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (RFO) under the direction of its chief conductor Karina Canellakis, the work reminded everyone present why, more than a century after its creation, it continues to move people across continents, cultures, and generations.
The evening also offered a fascinating intercultural parallel between composer and conductor.
Mahler's Second Symphony was born in one of Europe's most diverse cultural landscapes: the late Austro-Hungarian Empire. Born into a German-speaking Jewish family in Bohemia, today's Czech Republic, Gustav Mahler grew up at the crossroads of languages, religions, and identities. He belonged to several worlds at once. His music reflects this rich and sometimes complex environment, where German, Czech, Jewish, Catholic, Hungarian, and other traditions existed side by side and constantly influenced one another.
The Resurrection Symphony emerged from that context. Although its finale draws on Christian imagery of resurrection, the work speaks to far broader human questions:
How do we cope with loss? What gives life meaning? How do we find hope in the face of suffering?
These are questions that transcend any single culture, religion, or nationality. Very possibly, this is why audiences from so many different backgrounds continue to find themselves reflected in Mahler's music.
Standing before the orchestra was a conductor whose life story carries an intercultural dimension of its own. Karina Canellakis, an American who has made Amsterdam her home, comes from a family with roots in multiple cultural traditions. Like Mahler, she embodies the idea that identity is rarely confined to a single place, language or heritage. While separated by more than a century, the composer and conductor share something important: both have lived and worked in environments where different cultures meet, overlap, and enrich one another.
No surprise then, that the performance was simply mesmerizing with Canellakis and the RFO underscoring once again why theirs is an award-winning partnership. The sublimely singing soloists and choir topped off the experience.
What made the evening otherwise special was the way in which the intercultural dimensions of the music, the conductor, and the orchestra reinforced one another. Mahler's Resurrection Symphony emerged from a multicultural Central European society. Canellakis brought her own multi-layered perspective to the podium. The orchestra, itself shaped by a rich diversity of nationalities and cultural backgrounds, represents a hopeful image of the Netherlands in the 21st century: steeped in musical tradition while deeply connected to the wider world through cultural exchange.
In an era when public debate often focuses on the differences that separate people, Mahler's Resurrection Symphony offers a trusted, yet refreshing perspective. It reminds us that key experiences are shared by all of humanity. Grief, hope, doubt, resilience, happiness, and the search for meaning are not restrained by borders or beliefs. They belong to every single one of us.
And that is what made this performance so memorable. It was a superb concert. In addition, it was also a celebration of the ways in which cultures, traditions and individual stories can come together to create a form of interculturality that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
At OEF!, we were very honoured to attend. And we were reminded that cultural diversity still very much allows for shared cultural values.
ON EQUAL FOOTING takeaway:
"Standing on equal footing does not require us to share the same background, beliefs or traditions. It simply requires us to recognize that we are all walking through the same fundamental human experiences."
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