Prom 60: Intimations of mortality

By Matthew Rye, 31 August 2016

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“A single entity in a constant flux of timbral change and flexibility”

Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 30 August 2016

Bach, Ich habe genug - Cantata, BWV82

Bruckner, Symphony no. 9 in D minor, WAB 109

Christian Gerhaher, Baritone

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester

Philippe Jordan, Conductor

In these sacred halls: a long Sunday at the Enescu Festival

Peter Quantrill, 7th September

Bucharest’s temples of culture present rites of closure by Mozart, Kurtág and Bruckner… and a fleeting glimpse of Nirvana.

****1

Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and Martha Argerich in Évian

David Karlin, 2nd July

Argerich shows her full artistry, while Europe's young musicians show impressive coordination and dynamics, if short of emotion in Beethoven 7.

****1

Bluebeard as psychothriller in Castellucci's mismatched double bill

George Jahn, 2nd August

Romeo Castellucci's intense production of Bartók's opera reaps its rewards in the performance under Teodor Currentzis, but Carl Orff's opera-oratorio De temporum fine comoedia feels little more than a drab filler.

***11

Young Mahlerites show extraordinary insights at Salzburg

Jonathan Sutherland, 24th August

The multinational Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra proves that adolescence is no barrier to maturity in profound symphonic music making.

****1

Prom 56: Immaculate Ravel from Thibaudet

David Karlin, 24th August

German bombast. French joie de vivre. Russian soul-searching. You could hardly ask for more contrast in the principal themes of last night’s Prom, with Philippe Jordan conducting the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, from the military pomp of Wagner’s overture to Rienzi to the fairground whirl of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major.

***11

An exuberant Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester in Birmingham with Andsnes and Blomstedt

Rohan Shotton, 26th March

Herbert Blomstedt brought the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester to Birmingham for the ninth of their eleven-concert, two-week Easter tour. Their magisterial account of Bruckner’s Romantic Symphony, and a fine performance of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto by Leif Ove Andsnes, earned them a vociferous reception.

*****

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).

Prom 60: Intimations of mortality from the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra