The Full Works Concert: Thursday 15 January 2015, 8pm

Our second exclusive concert from Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra.

Catherine Bott presents Classic FM's exclusive broadcast of the second concert given by the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Friday 9 January. Jane Jones and Catherine introduce the concert here:

Tonight there's music from Cuban composer Julian Orbón alongside Mahler’s epic Symphony No.5.

Orbon's Tres Versiones Sinfonicas (1953) was described at its premiere by Orbon's teacher Aaron Copland as having "a naturalness and spontaneity that makes it immediately attractive." It's a work that is suffused with Latin American rhythms, based on three very distinctive musical sources: the first is a Pavanne by 16th century Spanish lutenist Luis de Milan; the second is a phrase by the 12th century French composer Perotin; and the third is a rhythmic pattern taken from Congolese music.

Nearly all of Mahler's symphonies require a very large orchestra and often last for more than an hour. Indeed, in the case of his Fifth Symphony, Mahler even adds a fifth movement, not content with any convention that dictated the fourth movement to be the finale. And yet, despite all this grandness of scale and depth, the main reason for the enduring popularity of his Symphony No.5 is the exquisite, ten-minute Adagietto that forms the fourth movement and which, more presciently, was put to such powerful use in the film Death in Venice.

DISCOVER: Mahler - Symphony No.5, "A transforming experience"> 
  


Julian Orbón: 3 Versiones sinfónicas

Mahler: Symphony No.5

Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela