Faber & Faber

Norman Lebrecht, whose new book Why Mahler? is published in July, is to curate a major celebration of the life and work of the great composer. Kicking off in September 2010 and running for 15 months, the Southbank Centre's anniversary celebrations - also called 'Why Mahler?' - will be a major event in the nation's cultural calendar.

Click here for a schedule of Mahler events.

Why Mahler? at the Southbank Centre, London (Press Release)

The World’s Most Significant Mahler Anniversary Celebration

(22 September 2010-9 October 2011)

Together with three of its Resident Orchestras, Southbank Centre will be at the world’s forefront celebrating the 150th year of Mahler’s birth (2010) and the centenary of his death (2011) with 30 hours of Mahler’s music performed over 27 concerts in 14 months. 

The London Philharmonic Orchestra contributes a unique context to the celebrations with performances of the complete song cycles, six of the symphonies, Mahler’s arrangements of other composers’ works, and music by Mahler’s contemporaries with a number of conductors, including Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski. 

Lorin Maazel leads the Philharmonia Orchestra in a heroic one-man journey through all ten Mahler symphonies and four major orchestral song cycles over ten concerts. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Principal Artist Jurowski continue to push the boundaries of period instrument performance in a concert that frames Mahler within the music of his direct predecessors, Liszt and Wagner. 

As part of Southbank Centre’s Shell Classic International series, Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in the most monumental of all Mahler symphonies, No. 3. Also as part of the overall Mahler anniversary celebrations, Southbank Centre presents a series of events curated by Norman Lebrecht that lead out of the programme. 'Why Mahler?' will explore and debate Mahler’s continuing impact on the world today, focusing on Mahler’s influence in a number of areas of contemporary society such as art, politics, religion, science and communication.

Why Mahler? How One Man and Ten Symphonies Changed the World is the title of a forthcoming book by Norman Lebrecht, who will curate the Southbank Centre’s 'Why Mahler?' series.

Norman Lebrecht explains: 'Why Mahler? Because, whether we know it or not, he's still shaping our world. Mahler is the music of epic movies and public mourning, the works for which world leaders reach when they cannot make sense of events, the soundtrack of our lives.

Each of his symphonies addresses a contemporary issue - the value of life, social exclusion, environmental hazards, the causes of war. Mahler is a maker of the modern world, along with Einstein, Picasso, Kafka, Lenin and Marconi. He is also the popular symphonist of the 21st century. Why Mahler? asks the questions that lie beneath and beyond the music our orchestras play.'

Follow Norman Lebrecht on his blog