18:30 Thursday 7 September 2017
Royal Albert Hall
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 6 in A minor
Vienna Philharmonic
Daniel Harding conductor
If the Ninth Symphony is Mahler's musical 'dark night of the soul', then the Sixth is the afternoon, dark with storm clouds, that preceded it. Although written at the happiest time of the composer's life, the work builds gradually into a shattering frenzy of despair. 'The hero,' wrote Mahler, 'is assaulted by three hammer-blows of fate, the last of which fells him as a tree is felled.' It was a musical vision that was to prove all too prescient for a composer who would soon suffer a series of life-changing personal heartbreaks.
This is the first of two appearances this season of the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted here by regular collaborator Daniel Harding.
Royal Albert Hall
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No 6 in A minor
Vienna Philharmonic
Daniel Harding conductor
If the Ninth Symphony is Mahler's musical 'dark night of the soul', then the Sixth is the afternoon, dark with storm clouds, that preceded it. Although written at the happiest time of the composer's life, the work builds gradually into a shattering frenzy of despair. 'The hero,' wrote Mahler, 'is assaulted by three hammer-blows of fate, the last of which fells him as a tree is felled.' It was a musical vision that was to prove all too prescient for a composer who would soon suffer a series of life-changing personal heartbreaks.
This is the first of two appearances this season of the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted here by regular collaborator Daniel Harding.
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