program
Violin Concerto
[San Francisco Symphony Premiere]
[San Francisco Symphony Premiere]
Jörg
Widmann
Symphony No. 4
Gustav
Mahler
All sound clips are from San Francisco Symphony performances and are used with permission of the SFS Players Committee.
performances
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Event Description
Opening with jingling bells and a rustic melody, Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony dances towards its glowing finale, heard here with debuting conductor Robin Ticciati and soprano Ying Fang. Violinist Alina Ibragimova makes her SF Symphony debut in Jörg Widmann’s contemporary Violin Concerto, where soloist and orchestra contend with each other until finally settling their differences in a harrowing conclusion.
At A Glance
Jörg Widmann often evokes connections with earlier German and Austrian composers. True to form, his Violin Concerto sounds as if it is sprung from Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto (1935), a modern monument it eerily resembles in its bridging between tonality and atonality, its voluptuous harmonies, its opulent orchestration, and its constantly transforming melodies.
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is perhaps his brightest and leanest symphony, opening with sleighbells and ending with a tremendous song called Das himmlische Leben (Life in Heaven). Still, Death makes an appearance in the second movement, playing a devilish folksong on the fiddle.
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is perhaps his brightest and leanest symphony, opening with sleighbells and ending with a tremendous song called Das himmlische Leben (Life in Heaven). Still, Death makes an appearance in the second movement, playing a devilish folksong on the fiddle.
