ABBADO will lead his "always young orchestra" in Bratislava.photo:Courtesy of the Slovak Philharmonic
ONE of the world's best symphonic ensembles, the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra), will perform at the Slovak Philharmonic in Bratislava on April 6 at 19:00 under the baton of its renowned conductor, Claudio Abbado, and featuring Swiss alto singer Anna Larsson.
The concert is part of the orchestra's European tour, which includes Bolzano, Trieste, and Rome in Italy, as well as Budapest and St Petersburg. The orchestra last performed at the Philharmonic's Concert Hall (Reduta) nine years ago. The programme of the concert will feature two works by Mahler: Symphony No 9 D Major and the last part from his Symphony for Alto, Tenor, and Orchestra - The Song of the Earth.
Abbado founded the orchestra in 1987 to join young musicians between the ages of 16 and 25 from three countries then divided by the Iron Curtain - Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary - into one symphonic ensemble, enabling the young musicians to gain orchestral experience. Since then Abbado has been the chief conductor and artistic leader of the "always young orchestra", which regularly cooperates with other leading conductors, such as Pierre Boulez and Péter Eötvös.
The 130 musicians, who are selected from international contests all around Europe, include two Slovaks - Michal Ďuriš and Pavel Püspöky.
The concert's organisers say that the orchestra's return to Bratislava shortly before the country's entry to the European Union is a symbolic gesture, when compared with the political situation at the time the orchestra was founded.
Tickets are on sale at the Slovak Philharmonic at Palackého 2.
