What's On
BBC Philharmonic 09/10
Mahler in Manchester
Tickets: £9.00 - £31.00
- Gianandrea Noseda conductor
- David Matthews Symphony
- No.7 (BBC Commission)
- Mahler Symphony No.7
An affront to good taste … a careless juxtaposition of extremes: just some of the verdicts on Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, which confused many when it was premiered in 1908 and continues to divide opinion today. The characteristic mixture of styles, encompassing the prosaic and the sublime, is taken to new levels, but equally dramatic is the way Mahler includes hints of other music – from popular dances to Bizet, Schubert and even Lehár – flying in the face of the belief that musical greatness could only be achieved through originality. He even adds a guitar and mandolin to the fourth movement – instruments more closely associated with lovelorn serenades than epic symphonies.
Unusually, he began it while still finishing the Sixth, in 1904. Perhaps the two ‘night music’ movements that he wrote first were a necessary antidote to the bleakness of the Sixth. As so often with this composer, once he found the inspiration to continue – which apparently struck while he was waiting to be rowed across an Alpine lake – he worked quickly, finishing the symphony in 1905. For all its detractors, it is the very aspects that so upset early audiences that have inspired many a 20th-century masterpiece.
It’s an evening of Sevenths, with Mahler’s coupled with that of one of the pre-eminent symphonists of today – David Matthews. It’s fitting, then, that Mahler is particularly close to Matthews’s heart, having assisted Deryck Cooke in the creation of a performing version of the Tenth Symphony (to be played on 5 June), giving him an understanding of the composer that is second to none.
Preview at 6.30pm
The author of a fascinating study of Mahler's life and music, Michael Kennedy talks to Lynne Walker about the Seventh Symphony and on what made Mahler who he was and, one hundred years since his death, what he means today.
Concert Plus
30 mins after the end of the concert
The Fairey Band, conducted by Phil Chalk.
The BBC Philharmonic and Hallé concerts will be recorded for BBC Radio 3. The concerts will be broadcast from 5 April on consecutive Mondays at 7.00pm for 10 weeks.
Unusually, he began it while still finishing the Sixth, in 1904. Perhaps the two ‘night music’ movements that he wrote first were a necessary antidote to the bleakness of the Sixth. As so often with this composer, once he found the inspiration to continue – which apparently struck while he was waiting to be rowed across an Alpine lake – he worked quickly, finishing the symphony in 1905. For all its detractors, it is the very aspects that so upset early audiences that have inspired many a 20th-century masterpiece.
It’s an evening of Sevenths, with Mahler’s coupled with that of one of the pre-eminent symphonists of today – David Matthews. It’s fitting, then, that Mahler is particularly close to Matthews’s heart, having assisted Deryck Cooke in the creation of a performing version of the Tenth Symphony (to be played on 5 June), giving him an understanding of the composer that is second to none.
Preview at 6.30pm
The author of a fascinating study of Mahler's life and music, Michael Kennedy talks to Lynne Walker about the Seventh Symphony and on what made Mahler who he was and, one hundred years since his death, what he means today.
Concert Plus
30 mins after the end of the concert
The Fairey Band, conducted by Phil Chalk.
The BBC Philharmonic and Hallé concerts will be recorded for BBC Radio 3. The concerts will be broadcast from 5 April on consecutive Mondays at 7.00pm for 10 weeks.