Who says Mahler has to mean epic? A jingling of sleighbells opens his Fourth Symphony; flutes call like skylarks and a melody straight out of Mozart swings cheerfully in. But it’s not all sweetness and light, and guest conductor Jesús López-Cobos will find tears, devilry and pitch black humour on the way to a final, blissful vision of heaven.
It’s an enchanting way to end an evening that features the rapier wit and sun-kissed beauty of Ravel’s brilliant little piano concerto – with the phenomenal Jean-Efflam Bavouzet reprising his award-winning partnership with the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Philharmonic - and opens with another high-voltage Koussevitzky commission: Hindemith’s bold and brassy Concert Music, a real showstopper from the Art Deco era.