James Gaffigan
Programme
Performers
Information about the programme
“My Fifth Symphony is an accursed creation. No one understands it.” Only after Mahler’s death did the initial incomprehension change to admiration for this forward-looking piece. Yearning for death and affirmation of life, Weltschmerz and fulfilment, sorrow and joy: all lie side-by-side in this symphony, as so often in Mahler. It opens with a funeral march, its centre is a Ländler followed by a musical declaration of love, and it ends in an apotheosis. James Gaffigan precedes Mahler’s trailblazing sonic universe with Haydn’s Sinfonia concertante, a work no less modern for its own era. By having four solo instruments (oboe, bassoon, violin and cello) stand out from the orchestral tutti, Haydn situates the piece between an instrumental concerto and a symphony – a welcome task for soloists from the ranks of the orchestra.
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