Amadeus Orchestra – Mahler Symphony No. 5

Back by popular demand, the Amadeus Orchestra returns to Exeter Cathedral with an exciting concert of orchestral masterpieces.

The performance begins with the overture to Ethel Smyth’s opera, The Wreckers. Famed for her exuberant personality, the opera was described as “chords, harmonies and melodies spun out of her so practical, vigorous, strident mind” by Virginia Woolf. Inspired by a trip to the Isles of Scilly, The Wreckers follows the legend of local plunderers forced into a life of crime by poverty.

We then hear Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major. Primarily concerned with collaboration, Ravel aimed to write a “genuine concerto” where the pianist and orchestra work together to highlight the soloist’s virtuosity.

The concert ends with Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony. Encompassing unrestrained joy to unbelievable despair, this monumental work features Mahler’s Adagietto, a beautiful love letter that is one of Mahler’s best-known compositions.

“One of the finest orchestras of its kind in the world.” – BBC Radio 4