Interview
Five questions for Milica Djordjević Gustavo Dudamel with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony
Gustavo Dudamel, who is standing in for an indisposed Zubin Mehta, conducts Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, one of the composer’s most popular works. It is a piece that takes us through very conflicting emotional worlds: grief, longing, the grotesque, and triumph. There is also a world premiere by Milica Djordjević. As a prelude, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Philharmonie – with Boris Blacher’s Fanfare written for the opening on 15 October 1963.
Sixty years ago, on 15 October 1963, the doors of the Philharmonie Berlin opened for the first time – a concert hall with which architect Hans Scharoun set standards. He freed the orchestra from the confines of the proscenium stage and moved it into the centre of the action. To do this, he arranged the rows of seats in terraces around the stage – like a “vineyard”, according to Scharoun. The first music for the new venue was composed by Boris Blacher: a fanfare for which the brass players are placed around the hall.
Milica Djordjević is one of the most exciting young composers of our time. In 2020, the Berliner Philharmoniker awarded her the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize. Here, the orchestra presents a new work by the adopted Berliner.
Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is very popular with audiences, especially the gentle Adagietto, scored only with strings and harp – a musical declaration of love to his later wife Alma. The work places high demands on the orchestra. Even the beginning of the Funeral March, with which the symphony opens, is a tightrope act for the solo trumpet. Mahler was well aware of this: “The individual parts are so difficult to play that they call for the most accomplished soloists.” The composer found these early on in the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom he performed his Second Symphony in 1895. Gustavo Dudamel is now continuing this long tradition.
Berliner Philharmoniker
Gustavo Dudamel
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