Prom 49 – Rattle Conducts Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony

Part of the BBC Proms.

With its vast performing forces and huge soundscapes, Mahler’s Second Symphony deals with no less a subject than the meaning of life. Wrestling with doubts and questions of human purpose, happiness and death, it offers extraordinary consolation in its final two movements, closing with a rapturous affirmation of faith: ‘I shall soar upwards, I shall die in order to live.’ Opening the concert is Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s rousing Donum Simoni MMXVIII for wind, brass and percussion – a musical gift composed in 2018 especially for Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra.