Zubin Mehta

Programme

Joseph Haydn
Sinfonia Concertante in B-Flat Major, Hob.I:105

Interval

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor

Zubin Mehta, Conductor

Ramón Ortega Quero, Oboe

Mor Biron, Bassoon

Radoslaw Szulc, Violin

Giorgi Kharadze, Cello

Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks

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. Zubin Mehta 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.