Andris Nelsons conducts Widmann and Mahler featuring Håkan Hardenberger, trumpet
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA
Adventurous Swedish trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger has collaborated frequently with Andris Nelsons and the BSO in a range of exciting works. This season he plays the American premiere of a BSO co-commissioned work by Jörg Widmann—the second BSO commission from the prominent German composer. Widmann, himself a noted clarinetist, creates imaginatively dramatic works with deep roots in music history.
The first of Mahler’s nine symphonies employs folk-music references and a conventional four-movement form that have their foundations in Haydn’s time. Its expanded scope and instrumentation are evidence of the genre’s 19th-century transformation as well as Mahler’s own stretching of the form.
Program Notes & Works
Towards Paradise (Labyrinth VI), for trumpet and orchestra
BSO co-commission. “The trumpet soloist sets off on a labyrinthine journey through a wide spectrum of psychological and tonal zones towards a utopian state of suspension.”
Symphony No. 1 in D
Gustav Mahler’s first contribution to the genre of the symphony, which he was to dominate and change drastically, took an unusually long gestation period to reach its final form.