Respighi: Gli uccelli (“The Birds”)

Mahler: Symphony No. 1

The Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra concludes its 27th season with two pieces that borrow from and amplify the natural world. Based on music by 17th and 18th century Baroque figures, including composers Pasquini, De Gallot, Rameau and recorder player van Eyck, Respighi’s neo-baroque piece The Birds musically evokes the flutter, bird song and movements of a Dove, Hen, Nightingale and Cuckoo. Similarly, Mahler wanted his Symphony No. 1 to reflect the world and all who live in it. In this exuberant work, he borrows freely from the sounds of nature and, in the third movement, from a familiar melody in order to offer us a musical experience that captures life at full speed, full of joy and bursting with humanity and nature.