Welcome to another daily 2024 BBC Proms preview from BBC Music Magazine. This time, we're previewing Prom 62 (Friday 6 September), featuring Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Mahler.
Make www.classical-music.com your daily go-to for the rest of the 2024 BBC Proms season, all the way up until the annual festival culminates in the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday 14 September. Each day, we've got an insightful, informative preview to that evening's Proms action. Another page you'll want to bookmark is our 2024 BBC Proms guide, where you find listings for every single Proms concert taking place this year, both in London and elsewhere (chamber music in Aberdeen, Newport and Belfast; weekend festivals in Bristol, Nottingham and Gateshead).
What's on at the BBC Proms today?
Todays Prom, Prom 62, features another visit from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and their chief conductor Simon Rattle. They were in town last night, Thursday 4 September, for Prom 61, which featured works by Bruckner and Thomas Adès.
Tonight, they perform a composer for whom both conductor and orchestra have a deep affinity: Gustav Mahler. Rattle has recorded a complete cycle of the Mahler symphonies with the two orchestras with which he's been most closely associated, the Berlin Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
The Bavarian Radio Symphony, meanwhile, recorded one of the most acclaimed Mahler cycles of all with one of their previous chief conductors, the great Rafael Kubelik. And, since Rattle joined the Bavarians as chief conductor last year, conductor and orchestra have already given us two much-praised recordings of Mahler symphonies: the Sixth and the Ninth. We've named the Bavarians one of the best orchestras in the world, by the way.
Why is Mahler's Sixth known as the 'Tragic'?
It's the Sixth, often known as the 'Tragic', that they will perform tonight. It's an unquestionably great work, though also something of an emotional rollercoaster.
The first in a long line of advocates for the 'Tragic' was a young Alban Berg, who attended the work's premiere in Essen, Germany on 27 May 1906. Berg immediately hailed it as a great work, even comparing it favourably to Beethoven - he called Mahler’s vast work ‘The only Sixth – despite the Pastoral’.
Scored for a huge orchestra, Mahler 6 features many standout moments - perhaps most memorably, the distant cowbells that evoke Alpine pastures. If that makes it sound, well, pastoral, don't be fooled - the emotional landscape of the Sixth is largely a bleak one. The infamous hammer blows that break through the noise in the final movement are perhaps its most defining feature. And the opening Allegro movement features a relentless march that seems to denote the approach of an implacable Fate.
Odd, all this doom, as Mahler composed the work during a relatively happy period of his life. That side of Mahler can be heard in, for example, the paradoxically optimistic string melody of the ‘Alma theme’ which interrupts that unceasing march in the first movement. The calm, restful Andante movement (which is played either second or third, before or after the Scherzo - opinions vary) is, likewise, a moment of serenity amidst all the angst.
What time do the BBC Proms start today?
Prom 62, featuring Simon Rattle in Mahler, begins at 8pm.
And how much are tickets?
Tickets to Prom 62 are priced from £26 to £80. You can also join the ranks of the legendary Prommers, though, and queue for the chance of an £8 ticket on the day.
