Mahler Symphony no. 5

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony begins with a funeral march – but that’s only the start of this particular story, with its tragedies, triumphs and distant horn-calls - plus, of course, the famous Adagietto, possibly the sweetest love-letter ever written in sound. Ryan Wigglesworth brings a composer’s insight to Mahler’s huge vision – and conducts his own song-cycle Till Dawning.

“Can there be any day but this / Though many suns to shine endeavour?” Like Mahler’s symphony, Till Dawning tells a story of suffering, struggle and triumphant reawakening, and this new orchestral version only heightens its emotional intensity. Wigglesworth himself conducts, and it’s sung by Sophie Bevan – the the “magnetic” British soprano who gave the world premiere of these four evocative settings of poems by George Herbert, back in 2018.