BBC Proms 2017 Prom 72, Vienna Philharmonic - Mahler's Sixth Symp...

BBC Proms 2017 Prom 72, Vienna Philharmonic - Mahler's Sixth Symphony (320kbps mp3)

Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Tom Service

The Vienna Philharmonic with conductor Daniel Harding perform Mahler's visionary Sixth Symphony, in their first concert this Proms' season.

00. Introductory commentary
01. Mahler - Symphony no.6 in A minor

Vienna Philharmonic
Conductor Daniel Harding

If the Ninth Symphony is Mahler's musical 'dark night of the soul', then the Sixth is the afternoon, dark with storm clouds, that preceded it. Although written at the happiest time of the composer's life, the work builds gradually into a shattering frenzy of despair. 'The hero,' wrote Mahler, 'is assaulted by three hammer-blows of fate, the last of which fells him as a tree is felled.' It was a musical vision that was to prove all too prescient for a composer who would soon suffer a series of life-changing personal heartbreaks.

This is the first of two appearances this season of the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted here by regular collaborator Daniel Harding.

Broadcast: 7 September 2017