One of the world's great orchestras comes to the Proms with Mahler's titanic fifth symphony and a major new work by Birtwistle commissioned for Chicago. Based on the idea of discontinuous time, it takes the moment just before midnight as a point of departure into a new world.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conductor Daniel Barenboim
Birtwistle Exody (first European performance)
8.00 Tales Out of School
Author and broadcaster Patrick Wright recounts his first meeting with Harrison Birtwistle, when the composer was a school teacher. Arriving to inspire the playing of some of the least musically competent children in the country, Birtwistle curtails the vile din of schoolboy fiddle playing and encourages the players to improvise three-note concertos. And that is just the beginning.
8.20 Mahler Symphony No 5