Choose life: Oramo's Mahler 9 leaves death for the last page

By Peter Quantrill, 06 October 2025

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“more akin to the contemporary gilded canvases of Klimt in a deliquescence of musical gesture”

Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 4 October 2025

Mahler, Symphony no. 9 in D major

Sakari Oramo, Conductor

BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sakari Oramo, Yeol Eum Son and the BBC Symphony in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 26th March

Yeol Eum Son’s Britten Piano Concerto formed the evening’s centre of gravity, played with lucid line, structural command and sudden fire. In Brahms’ Second Symphony, Sakari Oramo found conviction, proportion and a warmth that felt earned rather than applied.

****1

Sakari Oramo and Yeol Eum Son summon up vivid landscapes

Christopher Woodley, 13th March

Yeol Eum Son's superb performances of Bartók and Finzi are matched by intense and heady readings of Stravinsky and Weir by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

****1

From snow to sludge: Icelandic music at the Barbican Centre

Marat Ingeldeev, 22nd February

A bewildering evening at the Barbican, where ambitious Icelandic programming collapses under its lofty ambition of defying genres and making music more appealing to a wide variety of audiences.

**111

Fine Lindberg and Stravinsky double bill from the BBC Symphony

Roy Westbrook, 6th February

After a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s First Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili at the Barbican, Stravinsky’s Perséphone stands the test of time.

****1

UK premiere of Julia Wolfe’s unEarth impresses on scale, not substance

Susannah Moody, 23rd January

Wolfe's climate-change oratorio, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, already feels out of date.

**111

Sir James MacMillan delights with his Christmas Oratorio

David Karlin, 19th December

MacMillan's large scale choral work offers a rich variety of texts and musical ideas, the composer conducts the BBC Symphony with unerring precision.

*****

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Peter Quantrill

Peter Quantrill is a regular contributor to Gramophone, The Strad and other journals. Recent programme notes have been published by the Salzburg and Edinburgh festivals, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Ballet. He also writes about music and musicians for many record labels including Eloquence, Delphian, Signum, Danacord and Brilliant Classics. Once unplugged from his hi-fi, he can generally be found in a London concert hall or at the cricket, and he tweets (sporadically) @PeterQuantrill.