In Bloom

Program*

Gustav Mahler | Blumine
‍Viktor Ullmann | Piano Concerto, Op. 25
‍Johannes Brahms | Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op.73

Get ready to welcome spring with an afternoon at the Symphony, featuring pianist Einav Yarden!

This lush, romantic program features works by Mahler, Ullmann, and Brahms–all brilliant composers who planted seeds for those who came after them, Mahler continuing on the work of Brahms and Ullmann continuing on the work of Mahler until his untimely death in Auschwitz in 1944. What an immeasurable impact might Ullmann have continued to have on the art form if not for his loss?

First, we present Gustav Mahler’s Blumine, which translates as “flower.” Originally written in 1884 as incidental music for Joseph Victor von Scheffel's dramatic poem Der Trompeter von Säckingen, Blumine was briefly included as the second movement in Mahler’s First Symphony before he discarded it. Blumine is scored for a small orchestra, and features a gentle trumpet solo.

Next, Israeli pianist Einav Yarden joins the orchestra for Viktor Ullmann’s only Piano Concerto. Praised for her “exceptionally vivid playing” and “sense of immense majesty, tempered by gentleness and quiet grace” (The Washington Post), Yarden was a longtime student of the late renowned pianist Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory. Composed in 1939, Ullmann’s Piano Concerto is one of a small selection of his surviving works from the 1920s and 30s among what is presumed to have been a large lost catalog. 

Finally, the program concludes with Brahms’ Second Symphony.  Composed in the summer of 1877 at a lakeside village in Austria, the symphony has a bright, idyllic feel intermixed with a touch of melancholy, mirroring the existence of beauty and joy in an otherwise imperfect world. 

‍

"The sharp-edged clarity of [Einav Yarden’s] playing recalled that of her teacher, legendary pianist Leon Fleisher…Yarden displays enormous technical proficiency, unerring interpretive mastery, and a winning stage presence which clearly engaged her capacity audience."
-Michael Moran

‍

Of Note
‍

Pianist Einav Yarden is praised for her “imagination and exceptionally vivid playing…sense of immense majesty, tempered by gentleness and quiet grace” (The Washington Post, USA), and “glistening rapture…ingenious humor” (Tagesspiegel, Germany).

Always mischievous and a bit of a trickster, on November 1877, Brahms wrote to his publisher about his Second Symphony: ““It will at all events be a proper flop, and people will say that this time I took it easy…The new symphony is so melancholy that you won’t stand it. I have never written anything so sad, so minor-ish: the score must appear with a black border. I have given enough warning. Are you really still proposing to buy yourself such a thing? We can always alter the terms […]”

Mahler’s Blumine was rediscovered by biographer Donald Mitchell in 1966, while he was conducting research for a biography at Yale University.

‍

Experience One-of-A-Kind Moments!

Check out our BSO Health & Safety Guidelines and Concert FAQs to find out more about how we are working to keep you safe while sharing the joy of LIVE music.

Tickets: $15 to $52

A Pre-Concert Lecture about the program will take place at 2:15PM in the Walton Theatre. Doors open at 2PM and seating is limited, so please plan accordingly. These lectures are free for ticket-holders.

This concert qualifies for Classical Kids, Take-A-Teen, and Student Rush ticket discounts. Visit https://www.bellinghamsymphony.org/visit-us/ticket-discounts to learn more.

*All programs subject to change