Song of the Night

Conductor Jacek Kaspszyk opens the new artistic season of NFM Wrocław Philharmonic. British cellist Steven Isserlis performs as soloist. The evening's programme brings together two works in E minor: Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto and Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony.

Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor was composed in 1919 and ranks among the composer's late works. Unlike typical concert repertoire, it has an introspective and lyrical character. For many years it remained underappreciated - the turning point came only in 1965 with a recording by the then twenty-year-old Jacqueline du Pré. The solo part will be performed by British cellist Steven Isserlis, playing the "Marquis de Corberon" instrument from 1726, made in the Stradivarius workshop.

After the interval, Mahler's Seventh Symphony in E minor will be heard, known by the unofficial subtitle "Song of the Night". This is a work of radical musical language, full of sophisticated orchestral colours. The five movements of the symphony present strikingly different images: the persistent rhythm of oars in the first, an allusion to Rembrandt's "Night Watch" in the second, a "shadowy" third, a tender serenade with guitar and mandolin parts in the fourth, and the whole is crowned by a pompous finale, which Mahler himself accompanied with the words: "the world is mine!". For a long time the symphony remained on the margins of the repertoire - only in the second half of the twentieth century did it begin to be performed more frequently.

Programme:
E. Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor op. 85
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G. Mahler Symphony No. 7 in E minor

Performers:
Jacek Kaspszyk - conductor
Steven Isserlis - cello
NFM Wrocław Philharmonic