Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra/Dudamel

Gustavo Dudamel returns to the hall at the head of his ‘other’ orchestra: the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. There’s just one work, but Mahler’s mighty Symphony No 3 is a stand-alone masterpiece.

Famously, Mahler told Sibelius that a symphony ‘must be like the world: it must embrace everything’. And what a world is embraced by his Symphony No 3! The longest of Mahler’s symphonies it’s also one of the most ambitious. From the fruity 8-horns opening as Pan awakes, to the radiant love-infused finale described by one critic after the premiere as ‘perhaps the greatest adagio since Beethoven’, it’s a work of bold contrasts, exquisitely imagined colours, and all-consuming passions. Little wonder that after the first performance a 15-minute ovation recalled Mahler to the podium a dozen times.

French mezzo Marianne Crebassa ‘is truly a revelation’ insists Die Weld, while for the Los Angeles Times, ‘the overpowering grandeur of Dudamel’s Mahler Third is ultimately and irresistibly Utopian’.

This performance will end at approximately 9.30pm. Please note there will be no interval.

Produced by the Barbican

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