| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 18-Nov-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | A modernist Mahler 9 from Salonen and the Philharmonia |
There are, speaking in broad generalisations, two main ways that Mahler’s Ninth Symphony is performed. One sees it as the composer’s farewell to life, an elegy that celebrates, fears, stands tall, and refuses to go quietly into the good night. It’s farewell “from all whom he loved – and from the world!” wrote conductor and contemporary Willem Mengelberg in his copy of the score, farewell “from his art, his life, his music.” This school is by far the more common, and encompasses a wealth of different styles within it.
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| 28-Mar-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | The Show Must Go On: Mozart and Mahler at the Royal Festival Hall |
It was announced shortly before tonight's concert that the advertised conductor, the London Philharmonic's Principal Guest Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, was indisposed. In a programme which included Mahler's enormous Symphony no. 9, it was no small thing for Australian conductor Matthew Coorey to take over at short notice. Nézet-Séguin's misfortune also provided the occasion for Lisa Batiashvili to show her quality as a musician, as she elected to lead the orchestra from the violin in Mozart's Violin Concerto no. 3 in G.
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| 8-Sep-2011 De Doelen: Grote Zaal | An intense opening of the Gergiev Festival |
| Rotterdam’s annual Gergiev Festival is a very popular classical festival in The Netherlands and with good reason, their programs are always excellent and the appearance of former chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Valery Gergiev usually attracts big crowds. The theme this year’s festival “the sea”, indubitably inspired by Rotterdam’s famous port and its connection to the sea and water in general. Read full review... | |
| 25-Jul-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 14: Revelatory insights |
Mahler's Ninth Symphony – his last complete work in the genre – was written in 1908-9, against a backdrop of considerable personal tragedy and uncertainty. In 1907 he lost his eldest daughter, Maria, to scarlet fever, only to be followed by an anti-Semitic coup forcing him out of his job as artistic director at the Vienna Court Opera, and to receive the diagnosis of the heart condition that would kill him in 1911.Read full review... | |