BBC SSO 80th Birthday Concert

City Halls
Glasgow
Scotland

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Francois Leleux oboe
Sarah Connolly contralto
Andrew Staples tenor
Matthias Pintscher conductor

Gustav Mahler’s last word was “Mozart”, but he’d already said his farewells in music, and nowhere more movingly than in Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth): six heart-rending songs that wring out every last drop of life’s sorrow and sweetness. 80 years almost to the day since the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra was formed, it’s a wonderfully reflective way to mark the occasion, perfectly paired with the life-affirming sunshine of Mozart’s Oboe Concerto – performed tonight by a true poet of the oboe. BBC SSO Artist-in-Association Matthias Pintscher brings a composer’s empathy, and conducts his own beautiful Idyll: a musical journey towards the light, written in memory of a friend.

Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room
Oboist François Leleux in conversation.

Post-concert Coda
(approximately 10 minutes after the main concert)
François Leleux gives a short solo recital.


Matthias Pintscher : Idyll
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : Oboe Concerto in C major, K314
Gustav Mahler : Das Lied von der Erde