Philharmonia Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
Interval
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.5

Juraj Valcuha conducts Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and Mahler's Symphony No.5.

Mendelssohn and Mahler may at first appear unlikely musical bedfellows. Mendelssohn's music is predominantly a celebration of life while Mahler's has a tendency to focus on man's mortality.

Yet in these particular works they were never closer. Both open in the minor mode - Mahler with an inexorable funeral march, Mendelssohn in fearful flight - both feature major key slow movements tinged with sadness and regret (in Mahler's case, his famous Adagietto) and both end with joyful, dancing finales of uncontainable optimism.

Typically, Mahler prefers the sounds of rustic revelry while Mendelssohn free-floats on summer breezes.

Philharmonia Orchestra
Juraj Valcuha conductor
Renaud Capuçon violin