BBC Proms – Berliner Philharmoniker, Simon Rattle

From the Royal Albert Hall: Simon Rattle conducts Mahler's Seventh Symphony.

For the opening of his last season as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle chose Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. Following the performance at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Rattle took his orchestra to London, to present Mahler’s mighty work to his new concert audience from
next year on. Mahler played a decisive role in the musical career of Sir Simon Rattle who says of himself: “Gustav Mahler completely changed my life”. Indeed it was Mahler’s music that initially led him to the idea of pursuing a career on the podium. And in 1991 an interpretation of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony made a significant contribution to the Berliner Philharmoniker selecting Simon Rattle as their chief conductor. The Berliner Philharmoniker and their chief conductor are juxtaposing the epic scale of Mahler with Pierre Boulez’s Éclat – a work of the utmost density and economy, lasting barely eight minutes, and orchestrated for chamber ensemble – in commemoration of the great French composer and conductor who the music world lost in January 2016.

Duration 95 mins
Production Company A co-production of BBC and Berlin Phil Media