24 Feb
19:30
19:30
Britten, Mozart & Mahler
Philharmonia Orchestra
Royal Festival Hall
BRITTEN Quatre chansons françaises
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 21, K467
MAHLER Symphony No. 4
Richard Strauss was so in awe of Mahler's Fourth Symphony - especially the passage towards the end of the radiant slow movement when the gates of Heaven open in a resplendent E major - that in homage he sent him a huge parcel containing his complete published works. Mahler broke with all convention by ending this most heart-warming of all his symphonies with a song of child-like innocence in praise of heavenly life. That same tantalising simplicity informs the magical slow movement of Mozart's K467 Piano Concerto and Britten's early Quatre chansons françaises, composed shortly before his fifteenth birthday.