Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Kirill Petrenko

Kirill Petrenko conducts Mahler’s Seventh Symphony in this rare London appearance with one of the world’s finest orchestras.

‘The symphony must be like the world’ declared Mahler. ‘It must embrace everything’. And in his Seventh and most colourful symphony, he brings together love songs, nocturnes and dark visions, to create a sonic universe like no other.

The delirious moodswings and virtuosic writing of the Seventh make it a magnificent showcase for any orchestra, and the Bavarian State Orchestra is deeply versed in the German Romantic performance tradition. Under its music director Kirill Petrenko – recently appointed as Simon Rattle’s successor at the Berlin Philharmonic – it’s reaffirmed its place amongst the world’s leading orchestras: this should be intensely worth hearing.