Boston Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Ravel, Berg & Mahler

The third of four Boston Philharmonic Orchestra concerts in celebration of its 45th year, continuing its tradition of presenting thrilling performances of orchestral masterpieces and bringing exciting soloists to Boston audiences.

The program includes:

Ravel Pavane pour une infante defunte (Pavane for a dead princess)

Berg Violin Concerto

Liza Ferschtman, violin

Mahler Symphony No. 1 

Founder and Conductor Benjamin Zander will provide his popular "Guide to the Music" talk prior to the concert at 6:45 PM. All ticket holders are invited.

According to Zander:

"The cornerstone of the third concert is Mahler’s First Symphony. We last performed it twenty years ago, during the 25th all-Mahler anniversary season. This time I’ve paired it with Alban Berg’s final work, the deeply moving Violin Concerto, written as a memorial for Manon Gropius (daughter of Mahler’s widow, Alma, and Walter Gropius), who died at the age of 18. Berg dedicated it to "the memory of an angel.” We open the program with a work in memory of another lost child: Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, composed by the only composer who could be thought of as Mahler’s equal in his mastery of orchestration. 

Mahler is the composer to whom I feel closest as if I speak his language “without an accent.” I treasure each one of his symphonies. It is touching to me to place Mahler’s first great work together with Berg’s last; like an arc joining them in one sweeping gesture of musical history. I have often wondered what Mahler would have composed if he’d lived another 25 years beyond his 50th birthday. I suspect it might have sounded quite a bit like Berg.

The Berg will feature soloist Liza Ferschtman, who warmed every heart with her authentic and stirring rendition of the Beethoven Violin Concerto in 2019, a performance that The Arts Fuse chose as the “Best Solo Performance in Boston” that year."

The remaining concert in the 2023-24 season includes:

Friday, April 26, 2024, 8 PM

Mozart C Minor Piano Concerto

Alessandro Deljavan, piano

Bruckner Symphony No. 9

Sesh by The Boston Calendar | Advertise Terms | Privacy Policy | About