Mahler, Jolas and Boulanger

Barbican Hall, London
Barbican, Silk Street, London EC2
United Kingdom
020 7638 8891
http://www.barbican.org.uk/eticketing

BBC Symphony Orchestra/Storgårds

The doyenne of French composers, Betsy Jolas, brings one of her latest works to London, presented alongside music by Lili Boulanger and Gustav Mahler.

Betsy Jolas, born in 1926 and therefore a contemporary of Pierre Boulez, is one of French music’s greats and this concert features her work for piano, trumpet and orchestra, Histoires vraies from 2015 and written for the Festival Printemps des Arts in Monte-Carlo. The piece’s ‘stories’ aim to work with the ‘sounds we try not to hear’ and also bring together two players whose musical paths rarely cross: Håkan Hardenberger and Roger Muraro, one of France’s finest modernist pianists, who makes a rare UK appearance. Lili Boulanger, who died aged 24, gives us her atmospheric orchestral diptych juxtaposing morning and evening and Gustav Mahler’s folk-infused Fourth Symphony literally bursts into song to close the programme.



Gustav Mahler : Symphony No. 4
Lili Boulanger : D’un matin de printemps; D’un soir triste
Betsy Jolas : Histoires Vraies