Maazel: Mahler Cycle 2011

This listing is in the past

Southbank Centre: Royal Festival HallBelvedere Road, London, Greater London, SE1 8XX, United Kingdom

Dates/times in London time zone

Programme

Mahler, Gustav (1860-1911)	Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Mahler, Gustav (1860-1911)	Symphony no. 5 in C sharp minor

Performers

Philharmonia Orchestra
Lorin Maazel	Conductor
Dame Sarah Connolly	Mezzo-soprano
Matthias Goerne	Baritone

‘A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience’, Herbert von Karajan once said. A work of huge emotional scope, it opens with a funereal trumpet solo and ends in a triumphant, exuberant finale. The serene poise of the famous Adagietto at its heart is anticipated in Urlicht, a beautiful setting of the religious folk-poem ‘Primeval Light’, one of six song settings from the collection of German folk poetry Des Knaben Wunderhorn also performed this evening.

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Man's music?

Andrew Benson-Wilson, 5th May

The songs of Des Knaben Wunderhorn ("The Youth’s Magic Horn") form the basis for so much of Mahler’s music that it pays to hear some of them alongside a symphony (in the case the well-known Fifth Symphony, in the latest of the Philharmonia/Maazel collaborations). The performances of six of the songs by Sarah Connolly and Matthias Goerne gave a clear idea of the emotional power that they contain.