Teodor Currentzis to perform with RNMSO for the first time

Teodor Currentzis will take the helm of the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra for the first time. On April 30 and May 1, the conductor will present Mahler's works in the Tchaikovsky Hall - the Fourth Symphony, completed in 1901, and the vocal cycle "Songs about Dead Children", begun at the same time. Soloists - Alina Chertash and Sofia Tsygankova.

Mahler's music was performed in Teodor Currentzis's interpretation in the world's largest concert halls - from the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw to the National Center for the Performing Arts in China, and was broadcast on the Mezzo TV channel. In the 2024/25 season, Mahler's symphonies remain the focus of Currentzis's attention. On October 4, the conductor presented the Fifth Symphony in the Tchaikovsky Hall as part of a series of events for the 20th anniversary of the orchestra and choir musicAeterna. The Fourth Symphony, which is also included in the current program, was performed in April of this year in the halls of the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), the Isar Philharmonic (Munich) and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome). Now Teodor Currentzis will act as a mentor, sharing his experience with the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra. Each meeting with a new maestro is important for the group of young musicians, conceived as an orchestra without a principal conductor.

Symphonic music and a vocal cycle are not accidentally coexisting in the program: the Fourth Symphony arose from a song - it was "Heavenly Life" to the text from a collection of German folk songs "The Boy's Magic Horn". The genre of the song determined the chamber nature of the symphony and the seeming simplicity of the musical language, for which the work was criticized as outdated and irrelevant. Today, the opus remains a recognized masterpiece; the finale of the Fourth, conceived from the perspective of a child, sings of the peace of heavenly life.

Following the symphony, the vocal cycle "Songs about Dead Children" was created. Mahler turned to the poems of Friedrich Rückert - a poet who lost two children; the composer himself lost six brothers in his youth. The music conveys different facets of the experience of loss - from imaginary hope to stormy despair.

The soloist in the Fourth Symphony is Sofia Tsygankova, who performed the soprano part in Mahler's Second Symphony in one of the concerts of the anniversary tour of musicAeterna. The vocal cycle "Songs about Dead Children" with the orchestra will be performed by Alina Chertash - a soloist of the opera troupe of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia.