SCO 2021: Viennese Hothouse

Vienna at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was a hotbed of musical creativity – and pioneering radicalism. SCO Conductor Emeritus Joseph Swensen makes a welcome return for a richly coloured concert of intense works from that time. 

Blumine shows Gustav Mahler at his tenderest and most lyrical. Just as intimate and full of charm, What the Wild Flower Tell Me is Benjamin Britten’s graceful chamber reimagining of the second movement of Mahler’s vast Third Symphony. 

Only a few decades later, Alban Berg was at the forefront of new expression in his kaleidoscopic Kammerkonzert for violin, piano and an orchestra of wind and brass. Sometimes sumptuously beautiful, often witty and jazzy, the Concerto shimmers with musical codes and ciphers, as Berg embeds himself and his friends into the fabric of the music itself. Powerful German violinist Kolja Blacher and brilliant Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich are the soloists in this deeply expressive piece. 

Mahler Blumine, from Symphony No 1 
Mahler (arr. Britten) What The Wild Flowers Tell Me 
Berg Chamber Concerto, Op. 8                                  

Joseph Swensen Conductor 
Kolja Blacher Violin 
Roman Rabinovich Piano 

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Presented by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra