BBC Proms 2023 - Prom 56 - Rattle conducts Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (320kbps .mp3)

Live from the BBC Proms: Sir Simon Rattle’s final UK performance as Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra: Mahler’s Ninth Symphony and Poulenc’s Figure humaine.

01. Poulenc - Figure humaine
01a. Introduction to BBC Proms 2023 - Prom 56
01b. BBC Proms 2023 - Prom 56 - Interval
In conversation with Kate Molleson, William Mival explores the background and genesis of Mahler's Symphony No. 9.
02. Mahler - Symphony No. 9
02a. Outro to Mahler’s Symphony No. 9

BBC Singers
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor

In Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, the composer – who would not live to hear its premiere – bid ‘farewell to all whom he loved’. The words ‘Leb’ wohl!’ (‘farewell’) are written onto the score itself, transformed into a theme that becomes the heartbeat of the whole work. It’s a poignant choice for Sir Simon Rattle’s final UK performance as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra. Death and life collide in a symphony haunted by loss but urgently clinging to dance and song. The finale, however, looks beyond, closing with a vision of distant hills where the sun is shining. Opening the Prom is Poulenc’s choral masterpiece Figure humaine, a hymn to freedom from occupied France, performed by the BBC Singers.

Presented by Kate Molleson, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Broadcast: 27 August 2024