The Salomon Orchestra will perform Mahler's Seventh Symphony on October 19 at Smith Square Hall (formerly known as St John’s Smith Square), with Johann Stuckenbruck conducting.
Online booking opens in just a few days: 10am, July 8 from the Box Office.
The Seventh is one of Mahler's least performed symphonies, so this will be a rare opportunity to hear this fantastic work, live, in the concert hall.
If you would like to join Salomon Orchestra, then please
email admin@salomonorchestra.org with your details and experience.
In 1904, Mahler was enjoying international success as a conductor and, finally, began to achieve international recognition as a composer. His second daughter was born that June, and during his customary summer break away from Vienna, he finished his Symphony No. 6 and sketched the second and fourth movements for Symphony No. 7 while mapping out much of the rest of the work. He then worked on the Seventh intensively the following summer.
The completed score was dated August 15, 1905, and the orchestration was finished in 1906. The Seventh premiered on September 19, 1908, in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic.
The three years that elapsed between the score's completion and the symphony's premiere witnessed dramatic changes in Mahler's life and career. In March 1907, he resigned his conductorship of the Vienna State Opera as the musical community in Vienna turned against him (which was why he chose Prague for the work's debut); on July 12, his first daughter died of scarlet fever, and Mahler learned that he was suffering from an incurable heart condition.
The symphony is scored for a large orchestra, and Mahler's use of unconventional instruments is again displayed in the 7th with the scoring of tenor horn, cowbells, guitar and mandolin.
Johann Stuckenbruck
Photo Copyright: Radek Dranikowski
Following successful debuts in opera houses and concert halls across Europe and North America, British-American conductor Johann Stuckenbruck is establishing himself as an outstanding talent on the international stage.
Johann's highlights for the 2023/24 season include multiple appearances as guest conductor with the San Diego Symphony and Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestras, and collaborations with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy and Rafael Payare and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. Having assisted Speranza Scappucci at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie last season, Johann will also work with her again at Paris Opéra Bastille later in the year on their upcoming production of Madama Butterfly.