Birmingham: Mahler 6 with Marin Alsop

Programme

Big emotions. Big sound. Big talent. Huge orchestra. If you like your musical experiences super-sized, this is the concert for you.

First up is Bernstein’s take on Plato’s Symposium, for solo violin, strings and percussion. At this imagined feast seven philosophers discuss the nature of love – by turns sweet, joyful, melancholy, dramatic, even violent – as the wine flows. Like a good conversation, the music evolves organically, each new ‘speaker’ commenting on and developing the ideas of the ones before. Soloist Esther Yoo released her Deutsche Grammophon recording of this piece in February.

After the interval comes Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. No stranger to large orchestras, or to emotional extremes, here Mahler really pulls out all the stops. The orchestral forces are the biggest he ever wrote for, with extravagant brass and woodwind sections, and an array of percussion ranging from a bundle of sticks to offstage bells and a mighty hammer. And the depths of feeling he explores are some of the most intense too. According to his wife Alma, “not one of his works came more directly from his innermost heart as this.”

At the helm for this stormy musical voyage is the Philharmonia’s Principal Guest Conductor Marin Alsop. With a particular affinity for both Mahler and Bernstein (her erstwhile teacher), she’s an authoritative and compelling guide.