BBC SO/Oramo

Mahler’s compelling and exhilarating tussle with fate opens the orchestra’s ninetieth anniversary season under Chief Conductor Sakari Oramo.

‘None of his works came as directly from his inmost heart as this.’ So said Gustav Mahler’s wife Alma of the composer’s Sixth Symphony, a score of such terrifying and overwhelming power that it came to spook even Mahler himself. Across the symphony’s four movements we hear the composer grappling with his own demise – clinging hopelessly to love, hope and the beauty of life before collapsing exhausted.

Mahler’s compelling and exhilarating creations is preceded by Jörg Widman’s explosive image of a dance on a volcano in the first concert of BBC SO’s celebratory year.