Prom 36 – Mahler, Wagner and Webern

Part of the BBC Proms.

The Philharmonia Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen take a musical journey from aphorism to epic. Barely six minutes long, Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra distils expression down to its most concentrated form, every musical gesture carrying infinite weight and colour. By contrast, Wagner’s Die Walk?re, the second instalment of his monumental Ring cycle, explores musical expansion and amplitude, offering an all-consuming vision of illicit love. At the midpoint is the Adagio from Mahler’s 10th Symphony – music that grasps towards eternity and immortality but that was to remain tragically unfinished at the composer’s death.