91Èȱ¬

A chance to catch a return visit from Finnish conductor Eva Ollikainen to the 91Èȱ¬ Philharmonic following her hugely successful debut with them this summer. We also welcome 91Èȱ¬ New Generation Artist, mezzo Helen Charlston.

Gustav Mahler wrote his poignant song-cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), following the end of a relationship with a singer. As well as the music, Mahler wrote his own poems for the cycle, which charts the journey of an unhappy young man after a broken love affair.

Before that, the overture to a work that Mahler himself conducted regularly. Ludwig van Beethoven revised his only opera, Fidelio several times, and in a letter he said, ‘I assure you that this opera will win me a martyr's crown.’ The final result, though, is Beethoven at his most charismatic and its overture fizzes and crackles with a foretaste of the drama to come.

To close this afternoon, an effervescent work from Mahler’s friend Richard Strauss. Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier revels in the opulence of opera’s golden age, and the suite, which we hear today, will transport you back to the elegance and grace of 18th century Vienna.