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Sir Simon Rattle will once again conduct the BRSO in this year’s SZ Benefit Concert. Joining the orchestra and its Chief Conductor at this traditional event will be Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, one of the new international stars of classical music. A Berliner by choice, his playing achieves a natural balance between energy and virtuosity. He is a “perfect match” for Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, in which the composer assigned the soloist a new role (in contrast to the failed First): he holds the reins and initiates the musical narrative, is almost always active, dialogues with the orchestra, and drives the action forward.
This programme is unusually diverse even for the musicians of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Yet the musical worlds of Ligeti, Wagner, and Webern, which merge more or less seamlessly in this concert, are not as far apart as one might think. And in the second half there is Bruckner’s auratic Ninth Symphony, a true monolith. “It seems that the Ninth is a limit. If one wishes to go beyond it, one must leave this world. Those who wrote a Ninth were already too close to the hereafter” – this was Schönberg’s prophetic statement regarding Mahler, who died without ever having heard his Ninth Symphony. Bruckner is also said to have been afraid of this fatal number: “I don’t want to start on my Ninth at all, I don’t dare.” He died while working on the fourth movement.
This programme is unusually diverse even for the musicians of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Yet the musical worlds of Ligeti, Wagner, and Webern, which merge more or less seamlessly in this concert, are not as far apart as one might think. And in the second half there is Bruckner’s auratic Ninth Symphony, a true monolith. “It seems that the Ninth is a limit. If one wishes to go beyond it, one must leave this world. Those who wrote a Ninth were already too close to the hereafter” – this was Schönberg’s prophetic statement regarding Mahler, who died without ever having heard his Ninth Symphony. Bruckner is also said to have been afraid of this fatal number: “I don’t want to start on my Ninth at all, I don’t dare.” He died while working on the fourth movement.
In 2018, Harrison Birtwistle, one of the most influential contemporary British composers, wrote a typically intense, rugged piece lasting less than four minutes (that turned out to be one of his last) and dedicated it to Sir Simon. The piece acts as a fitting opening for the decidedly monumental work that follows: Mahler’s Seventh, to which Rattle turns his attention after having already performed the Sixth and Ninth with the BRSO. Mahler found it particularly difficult to complete the work at the time. While trying to compose an appropriate opening, he suffered from a debilitating writer’s block that plunged him into deep depression. On a rowing trip across Lake Wörthersee, he is said to have conceived the redemptive idea for the first movement – a tenor horn solo that leads directly into the emotional cosmos of the symphony.
In 2018, Harrison Birtwistle, one of the most influential contemporary British composers, wrote a typically intense, rugged piece lasting less than four minutes (that turned out to be one of his last) and dedicated it to Sir Simon. The piece acts as a fitting opening for the decidedly monumental work that follows: Mahler’s Seventh, to which Rattle turns his attention after having already performed the Sixth and Ninth with the BRSO. Mahler found it particularly difficult to complete the work at the time. While trying to compose an appropriate opening, he suffered from a debilitating writer’s block that plunged him into deep depression. On a rowing trip across Lake Wörthersee, he is said to have conceived the redemptive idea for the first movement – a tenor horn solo that leads directly into the emotional cosmos of the symphony.
“Thus might we die, that together / ever one, without end / never waking, never fearing / namelessly enveloped in love / given up to each other / to live only for love!” In Act 2 of the music drama, Tristan and Isolde assure each other of their boundless love, which outlasts even death. “And regardless of how often you perform it, it continues to be shocking,” says Sir Simon Rattle. For the BRSO Chief Conductor, this music by Wagner, in which every bar trembles and sways until everything finally dissolves, is a narcotic, an addictive drug. Rattle continues his series of Wagner operas in concert performances with the brilliant Lise Davidsen as Isolde, who is singing this role for the first time. This will undoubtedly be an eagerly awaited highlight of the early part of the concert season.
“Thus might we die, that together / ever one, without end / never waking, never fearing / namelessly enveloped in love / given up to each other / to live only for love!” In Act 2 of the music drama, Tristan and Isolde assure each other of their boundless love, which outlasts even death. “And regardless of how often you perform it, it continues to be shocking,” says Sir Simon Rattle. For the BRSO Chief Conductor, this music by Wagner, in which every bar trembles and sways until everything finally dissolves, is a narcotic, an addictive drug. Rattle continues his series of Wagner operas in concert performances with the brilliant Lise Davidsen as Isolde, who is singing this role for the first time. This will undoubtedly be an eagerly awaited highlight of the early part of the concert season.
