National Symphony Orchestra
Jaime Martín, conductor
Simone Lamsma, violin

Berg Violin Concerto
Mahler Symphony No. 5

The National Symphony Orchestra’s new season begins in style, with the ‘brilliant’ (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and ‘absolutely stunning’ (Chicago Tribune) Simone Lamsma joining the NSO and Chief Conductor Jaime Martín for two monumental works.

Simone Lamsma is one of today’s most striking and captivating musical personalities, renowned for her ‘rewarding musical thoughtfulness and impeccable instrumental accomplishment… making her violin radiate with a sound of rich sweetness and golden colour’ (Sydney Morning Herald).

Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto – his only concerto and his last completed work – is a heart-wrenching requiem written following the death of the daughter of the architect Walter Gropius and Alma Mahler, widow of the composer Gustav. Dedicated ‘to the memory of an angel’, it is, as grief so often is, a work of turbulent emotions. But also shot through with loving nostalgia, dreamy evocations of the lost child and, in its striking blend of serialism and traditional tonality, it is one of the 20th century’s most moving declarations of love.

One of the shining jewels of the repertoire and composed in tribute to his wife, Alma, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is also a compelling love letter in musical form. Intensely poetic and deeply personal, it is a love song cast as an extended, elevated serenade that seems to unfold in one long, infatuated, hypnotic breath. Moving from funereal bleakness to transcendent joy, at its heart is a gravity-free Scherzo and the sublime, ever-popular Adagietto¬, famously brought to a wider audience in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film, Death in Venice.
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Presented by National Symphony Orchestra