Earth Unwrapped: Aurora Orchestra - In the Alps

Welcome to the Alps! Join Aurora and soprano Mary Bevan on a mountain journey in the third concert of Aurora’s year-long exploration of Mahler’s music.

Ayres offers a different perspective on mountain life with his extraordinary No. 42 – In the Alps: an ‘animated concert’ which combines a virtuosic and ravishing score with a zany story and projected silent film-style titles. Mary Bevan appears as soloist for this playful, beautiful and often uproariously funny piece which tells the story of a young girl stranded on top of an unclimbable mountain-top, who learns to sing from the mountain animals around her and falls in love with the distant trumpet-playing of a boy in the valley far below.

And where else could this journey continue but Mahler’s Fourth Symphony? Written following a lazy summer in the very mountains Ayres describes, Mahler drew on themes of childhood, innocence and spirituality to create some of his most affecting orchestral music. Aurora performs Iain Farrington’s arrangement for chamber orchestra, which retains the character of Mahler’s original symphony and draws out the composer’s soloistic instrumental lines for a more intimate presentation.