Brahms and Mahler are names well-known to concertgoers, but for this program Maestro Lü has paired them in music that is generally unfamiliar. Mahler’s 75-minute Seventh Symphony may be the least-known of his ten monumental works in the genre, but it is no less fascinating, thrilling and sublime than any other by Mahler. It opens with what Mahler said should sound like “a roar of nature and ends with almost Bacchic exuberance approaching sheer frenzy. In between come horn calls echoing from distant mount slopes, exquisite passage for mandolin and guitar (instruments rarely heard at NSO concerts), surrealistic mindscapes and more. Brahms’s Song of Destiny is a choral work of aching beauty, with a text dealing with the themes of fate, predestination and the power of love over death.

sponsored by China Development Financial and China Development Industrial Bank Founation