Programme
Gustav Mahler arr. Klaus Simon Symphony No.9
Artists
English Symphony Orchestra
Video available from 7:30pm GMT 7th July 2021
About this Concert
The Ninth Symphony was Mahler’s last completed work, and the composer did not live to see it performed. It has since come to be viewed as possibly the Everest of symphonic music. Mahler’s friend, composer Alban Berg, wrote of the piece that “I have once more played through Mahler's Ninth. The first movement is the most glorious he ever wrote. It expresses an extraordinary love of the earth, for Nature. The longing to live on it in peace, to enjoy it completely, to the very heart of one's being, before death comes, as irresistibly it does.”Discover More
About the Arrangement
Arranger and conductor Klaus Simon has made celebrated chamber versions of most of Maher’s music in the spirit of those made in the 1920’s for Arnold Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances. In the case of the Ninth, he has reduced the forces from the 100 or so in Mahler’s original score to a chamber ensemble comprising solo strings, solo woodwinds, two horns, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano and harmonium. Other than the reduction in forces, Simon’s arrangement neither omits nor alters anything in Mahler’s score.
About the Performance and Premiere
This virtual performance was recorded and filmed in Wyastone Concert Hall near Monmouth 23rd-25th March 2021. It was the first time the orchestra had gathered since November 2020 and the second UK lockdown. The premiere has been scheduled to take place on the 7th July, which marks the 161st anniversary of Mahler’s birth.
Production Information
Recorded at Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, 23rd-25th March 2021
Producer: Phil Rowlands
Videographer: Tim Burton
Orchestra Manager: Simon Brittlebank / The Music Agency
Stage Manager: Ed Hayes / The Music Agency
