Love, death and the whole damn thing

For its opening concert of the 2008−2009 season on Sunday October 19th, the Cambridge Philharmonic Society offers one of the most amazing descriptions of passionate love (and death) ever written in music, a titanic symphony from a composer at the beginning of his extraordinary musical journey, and a modern masterpiece played by a new and genuine superstar.

The concert opens with one of Richard Wagner’s ‘bleeding chunks’ − orchestral pieces culled from his operas. The Prelude from the opera Tristan and Isolde is one of the most sublime statements of what it means to love, even unto death, which has ever been written. Starting almost invisibly with a yearning cello melody of pure desire it ascends finally to the most shattering and tear-jerking cry of doomed love you are ever likely to hear − an ecstasy of hopeless passion. You don’t even notice that there is no singer telling you about it, so exquisite is the orchestral writing.

But there’s more to come − passion of a different kind. The young star Mark Simpson will play one of the most successful modern concertos, Magnus Lindberg’s Clarinet concerto. This is an amazing pairing of music and performer. Mark shot to the public’s attention in 2006 when, at the age of only 17, he not only won the BBC “Young Musician of the Year” competition playing his clarinet, but in the same year he also won the BBC “Young Composer of the Year” with his piece Threads for Orchestra. He wins piano competitions too!

Lindberg’s concerto, which Simpson has already performed with extraordinary success, is a one-movement piece divided into roughly five parts. It has enjoyed phenomenal success since its premiere in 2002. The BBC Music magazine describes it as “indubitably contemporary in language yet sensuously easy (tuneful, even) on the ear.” The Times newspaper called it "a perfect concerto...if there's any justice it will soon be as oft-performed as Mozart’s concerto."

And then, after the interval, it’s Mahler − his mighty Symphony no 1, nicknamed The Titan. This symphony has everything; military bands, Austrian waltzes, a solo double bass (how often does that happen?) playing Frère Jacques in a minor key, and a huge last movement that ends in affirmation and triumph. And it will be worth listening to if the society’s performance of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, last season, is anything to go by. “This performance,” wrote reviewer James Day in the magazine Cambridgeshire Pride, “will live in my memory as an exhilarating and purposeful voyage from spiritual darkness into a blazing light of glory... one of the high-points in the Phil’s long history.”

Well that is, until now!

Tickets (£15 unreserved; £8 for children and students on the door) can be bought online at www.cam-phil.org.uk, and are also available from the Cambridge Arts Theatre Box Office (01223 503333), or at the door.

The concert starts at 7.30pm at West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge

Notes for editors

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