He is regarded as one of the world’s leading performers on his instrument: French cellist Gautier Capuçon. After a longer absence, he returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra to play under the baton of chief conductor Alan Gilbert what is probably the most popular cello concerto of all time: the B minor Concerto by Antonín Dvořák.
Following the cello concerto, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra performs Gustav Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. A Mahler symphony during the coronavirus pandemic? Is that feasible? Alan Gilbert and his musicians feel confident. And if one work from the composer’s monumental oeuvre is suited to the occasion, then it’s the Fourth Symphony. After his massive, almost excessive Third, Mahler deliberately stays within »Classical« bounds here, in terms of both dimensions and the size of the orchestra – and still manages to achieve the gripping intensity listeners are used to in his music, despite the reduced resources. In the fourth movement a »child« tells of a life in »heavenly paradise«, a role taken in Hamburg by soprano Anna Prohaska, who is a sought-after concert and opera singer worldwide.
Performers
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Gautier Capuçon violoncello
Anna Prohaska soprano
conductor Alan Gilbert
Programme
Antonín Dvořák
Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in B-flat Minor, Op. 104
Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 4 in G Major for Large Orchestra and Soprano
