Eliahu Inbal: Barcelona Symphony Orchestra

About the Event

The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eliahu Inbal, will perform Mahler's Symphony no. 7 at the Auditori de Barcelona.

Written in 1904, and without a basic tonality to structure its course, this symphony foreshadows the aesthetic and sonic twists that Schoenberg would take to the limit a few years later. In it, there are moments in which the bowels of the orchestra reveal a virtually transparent chamber music, hard to beat, until reaching the final climax. Right from the introductory chords of the first movement, similar to a funeral march, Mahler leads us to experiment with tragedy. There is an example of Nachtmusik [serenade], a vague dream, in which each instrument seems to act as a privileged soloist; once again, Mahler travels without pause between funereal spaces and brief moments of hope. Even in the third movement – a waltz in the form of a Scherzo, in which the composer again pays homage to the popular Viennese music of the Strauss brothers–, the tone remains sardonic, extremely sour.

The second Nachtmusik in the fourth movement, also a serenade, further exploits the texture of the orchestral soloists, adding even the rustic sound of a mandolin and a guitar.

The final movement leads us into the triumphant outbreak from the 'night‐sound' we have just experienced. Music that is a prelude to the most characteristic aesthetic twists of the XXth century.

Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC)
Eliahu Inbal, conductor