Royal Albert HallKensington Gore, London, Greater London, SW7 2AP, United Kingdom
Dates/times in London time zone
Festival: BBC PromsProgramme
| Shostakovich, Dmitri (1906-1975) | Festive Overture in A major for orchestra, Op.96 | |
| Mahler, Gustav (1860-1911) | Symphony no. 5 in C sharp minor |
Performers
| Proms Festival Orchestra | |
| Mark Wigglesworth | Conductor |
After a year in which venues fell quiet and orchestras downsized, tonight’s Prom is a celebration of all an orchestra can do. A specially assembled Proms Festival Orchestra – made up of leading freelance musicians – performs two colourful showpieces of the repertoire. Shostakovich’s Festive Overture bubbles over with a fresh exuberance that reflects the fact that its composer wrote it in two days flat.
Mahler’s Fifth Symphony spans an expressive chasm from the Funeral March of the first movement to a precariously unhinged Scherzo via the work’s lingering, lyrical soul: the heart-rendingly beautiful Adagietto, written as a musical love letter to his wife Alma.
