Symphonic Masterworks - Mahler Celebration with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (C1)

Abu Dhabi Classics, with two hugely successful seasons already behind it, begins its latest outing with a characteristically high-profile event on 6 October at the Emirates Palace Auditorium, spotlighting one of the supreme traditions in concert music – the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performing Gustav Mahler. Amsterdam’s revered orchestra – voted the world’s finest in Gramophone magazine’s recent poll of international critics – was often conducted and highly prized by Mahler himself. Launching the composer’s double-anniversary season under Maestro Daniele Gatti, a noted interpreter of Mahler’s works, the orchestra is featured in the spectacular Fifth Symphony, an emotional roller-coaster that includes the lovely “Adagietto” for strings and harp, made famous in Visconti’s film Death in Venice. The evening opens with a piece that Mahler especially loved and frequently conducted, the beautiful Siegfried Idyll by his greatest musical influence – Richard Wagner.