Einladung zum Prager Frühling

The appearance of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra headed by Daniel Harding promises to be one of the highlights of the 78th edition of the Prague Spring. Known for its supreme interpretations, the ensemble was also shaped in the years 1961–1979 by Czech conductor in exile Rafael Kubelík, who recorded the complete Mahler symphonies with the orchestra, an achievement celebrated to this day. 

British conductor Daniel Harding has a close artistic affiliation with the orchestra. Born in Oxford, he began his career as a phenomenally talented young man. At a mere seventeen years of age he assisted Simon Rattle at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. After his first year of study at Cambridge University, Claudio Abbado appointed him his assistant with the Berlin Philharmonic, the orchestra which he conducted for the first time at the age of twenty-one. When he gave his BBC Proms debut in 1996 he was the youngest conductor in the history of the festival to do so. It is interesting to note that Harding is also a qualified, active airline pilot (he works for Air France).

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 was premiered in 1908 at Prague’s Exhibition Grounds on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph I; the Czech Philharmonic was conducted by the composer himself. Of all Mahler’s symphonies, the Seventh is the most enigmatic and, according to many, the most visionary as well. Arnold Schönberg saw in it the end of Romanticism; Mahler spoke about the “predominantly cheerful, humorous content” of his symphony. The evening-length work is scored for a large orchestra, and we will also hear unconventional instruments, including cowbells, mandolin and guitar.