Powerhouse conductor Donald Runnicles brings the 2016 Usher Hall concerts to a dazzling conclusion with Schoenberg’s epic mega-cantata Gurrelieder, marking his very last concert as Chief Conductor of the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
One of the grandest, most opulent musical statements ever made, the voluptuous but rarely performed Gurrelieder uses a gargantuan orchestra and chorus to tell of the love between King Waldemar and the young Tove, later murdered by Waldemar’s jealous Queen. It blends myth and magic, and influences from Wagner and Mahler in a lush, late-Romantic score of kaleidoscopic colour and immense power.