The BBC Proms concerts this week in Music Alive include two massive symphonies with a lot in common. Both are for chorus and orchestra, and both touch on metaphysical themes.
Monday night sees the UK première of Danish composer Per Nørgård’s Third Symphony. With its text from the writings of poet Rainer Maria Rilke, this gripping work is a search of the cosmos.
The star cluster Trumpler 14, one of the largest gatherings in the Milky Way. Photo: AFP PHOTO / NASA & ESA, Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia)
What better way to complement a search for the meaning of life, than a set of songs that acknowledge an inevitable death? Richard Strauss’s lustrous Four Last Songs share the same programme with a performance by German soprano Malin Byström.
Composer Gustav Mahler by Emil Orlik Photo: Public Domain
Wednesday night has Mahler’s best-loved Fourth Symphony performed by the ‘intoxicatingly energetic’ Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.
Mahler used this work to show a different side of himself to the world. He wrote to his confidante Nana Spiegler, “… you will glimpse an aspect of me that you do not yet know. All I fear is that this aspect will please you most, so that henceforth you will only look at me from one side.”
The Proms Schedule this week:
Monday 10 September 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Strauss, Wagner & Per Nørgård
Malin Byström (soprano), London Voices, The National Youth Chamber Choir, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Dausgaard
WAGNER: Parsifal, Prelude to Act 1;
STRAUSS: Four Last Songs;
NØRGÅRD: Symphony No 3
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Tuesday 11 September 2018
12.00 Upbeat
Including: 1.00 BBC Proms 2018:
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande & Jonathan Nott
Renaud Capuçon (violin), Orchestre de la Suisse Romande/Jonathan Nott
DEBUSSY: Jeux;
RAVEL orch Maresz: Violin Sonata in G;
MASSENET: Meditation, from Thaïs;
STRAVINSKY: Petrushka
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Edward Gardner & Bergen Philharmonic
Alina Ibragimova (violin), Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner
WAGNER: Flying Dutchman Overture;
WALLIN: Violin Concerto;
SIBELIUS: Symphony No 2 in D Op 43
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Wednesday 12 September 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Iván Fischer & Budapest Festival Orchestra (I)
Anna Lucia Richter (soprano), Budapest Festival Orchestra/Ivan Fischer
ENESCU: Suite No 1, Prelude à l'unisson;
BARTOK: Music for strings, percussion & celesta;
MAHLER: Symphony No 4 in G
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Friday 14 September 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Mozart & Bruckner
Benjamin Grosvenor (piano), BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo
MOZART: Piano Concerto No 21 in C K467;
BRUCKNER: Symphony No 5 in Bb
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
Saturday 15 September 2018
7.30 Music Alive
BBC Proms 2018: Marin Alsop & Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Jean-Yves Thibaudet (piano), Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop
BERNSTEIN: Slava! (A Political Overture);
BERNSTEIN: Symphony No 2, The Age of Anxiety;
SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No 5 in D minor Op 47
Recorded Royal Albert Hall, London (BBC)
