Recommended recordings

The second movement is rustic and strongly rhythmic, Mahler’s affectionate evocation of the rural dances of his childhood and their favourite form, the waltz-like Ländler. Again there is melodic material derived from a song – ‘Hans und Grethe’ from his Lieder and Gesänge of the early 1880s – though this time less overtly presented and without apparent specific significance. A central ‘Trio’ brings a more graceful mood, before the bucolic lurchings of the first section return.

The ‘Human Comedy’ part of the Symphony opens with a funeral march, though one weirdly based on the nursery tune of ‘Frère Jacques’ (or ‘Bruder Martin’, as Mahler would have known it), initially intoned by a glassily muted solo double bass and then taken up and adorned by the other instruments over statelytreading timpani and basses. Mahler’s programme explains that it was inspired by a well-known engraving from an Austrian children’s book, showing a huntsman’s funeral in which the coffin is attended by an assortment of woodland animals and village musicians. ‘The movement is intended to express alternately the moods of jesting irony and eerie brooding’, Mahler declared; the former can certainly be heard in the episode of Klezmer-like band music that appears twice, but there is also a central episode, based on another Gesellen song, ‘Die zwei blauen Augen’ which offers perhaps the most dreamily reposeful moments in the whole Symphony.

The mood is shattered by the intrusion of the last movement – ‘Dall’ Inferno al Paradiso, as the sudden cry of a wounded heart’ according to the discarded programme. The movement brings together material from its predecessors, but there is more than a formal struggle going on here. The frenzied anguish of the opening gives way to a long and consoling string theme, but bursts out again, only to be challenged by a new version of the first theme, proposed quietly at first by the trumpets but then quickly growing in confidence. A return of the nature music of the Symphony’s opening questions the seeming inevitability of the direction things are taking, but eventually the main theme creeps back in on violins to begin its inexorable build towards a final peroration, which, when it comes, is as lifeaffirmingly emphatic as in any Mahler symphony.

Programme note © Lindsay Kemp

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works by Laurie Watt

Beethoven: Triple Concerto Giuliano Carmignola | Sol Gabetta | Dejan Lazić Basel Chamber Orchestra | Giovanni Antonini (Sony) or Anne-Sophie Mutter | Mark Zeltser | Yo-Yo Ma Berlin Philharmonic | Herbert von Karajan (Deutsche Grammophon)

Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (see below) London Philharmonic Orchestra | Vladimir Jurowski (LPO Label LPO-0070) or London Philharmonic Orchestra | Klaus Tennstedt (LPO Label LPO-0012)

Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on the LPO Label

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major (inc. ‘Blumine’)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra £9.99 | LPO-0070

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

Klaus Tennstedt conductor Thomas Hampson baritone London Philharmonic Orchestra £9.99 | LPO-0012

100+ recordings available from lpo.org.uk/ recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets. Download or stream online via Primephonic, Idagio, Apple Music, Spotify and others.

Anne-Sophie Mutter & Friends

Thursday 26 March 2020 | 7.30pm Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall Please note venue

BeethovenString Trio No. 5 Jörg Widmann Study on Beethoven (UK premiere)* Beethoven String Quartet No. 10 (Harp) * Commissioned by Anne-Sophie Mutter

Anne-Sophie Mutter violin Pieter Schoeman violin | Richard Waters viola | Kristina Blaumane cello

Tickets £15–£45 Book now at lpo.org.uk or call 020 7840 4242.

Part of Southbank Centre’s International Chamber Music Series. All proceeds from this concert will be donated to Crisis, the national charity for homeless people.

WAGNER’s Ring Cycle

with Vladimir Jurowski | January–February 2021

Join us as we reach the end of a remarkable three-year journey with two star-studded semi-staged complete Ring Cycles at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

On sale now For full dates, cast and booking details, visit lpo.org.uk/ringcycle or call the LPO Ticket Office on 020 7840 4242.