Robin Ticciati conducts Mahler’s Fourth

Robin Ticciati (photo: Giorgia Bertazzi)

On Robin Ticciati ‘s performance of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony,  the Berliner Morgenpost noted that the piece is seldom heard so “…naturally flowing, without mannerisms, with beguilingly beautiful pianissimi”. This unusually sunny Mahler symphony is also on the programme when the chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin makes his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker. It is preceded by two Czech works: Antonín Dvořák’s haunting The Noon Witch and Ondřej Adámek’s Sinuous Voices, in which a tangle of human voices is imaginatively recreated by an instrumental ensemble.

Introductions as well as further articles and information about the concert.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Robin Ticciati conductor

Elsa Benoit soprano

Antonín Dvořák

The Noon Witch, op. 108

Ondřej Adámek

Sinuous Voices

Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 4 in G major

Elsa Benoit soprano

Dates and Tickets

Biographies

Robin Ticciati

Violinist, pianist, percussionist, conductor: the multi-talented Robin Ticciati started young. He was already playing the timpani in the British National Youth Orchestra at the age of 15. It was there that Sir Simon Rattle discovered the young musician's conducting talent and became his mentor. Conducting engagements with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra followed, and then invitations to the Salzburg Festival and to La Scala, Milan, where he was the youngest conductor ever to appear. From 2009 to 2018, he was Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and from 2010 to 2013 Principal Guest Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. In 2017, Ticciati took over as Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, a position he will hold until summer 2025. The Briton with Italian roots has been repeatedly praised for his love of experimentation and diverse repertoire, from historically-informed performance on instruments with gut strings to on-stage improvisations. "You have to dare to be truly creative," says Ticciati; ultimately it is about "inviting musicians to follow a musical idea and inspiring them", so that they play "as if it were the most important thing in their life at that moment". Since summer 2014, Ticciati has also been Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where he has received enthusiastic acclaim for his work in new productions of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, Strauss' Rosenkavalier and Dvořák's Rusalka, among others.

Elsa Benoit

Elsa Benoit is praised for her "flawless top notes" (Bayerischer Rundfunk) and the "beguiling nonchalance" of her coloratura has been received with enthusiasm at major opera houses: "Every note in her voice is expressive,” wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung. From 2016 to 2021, the French soprano was a member of the Bavarian State Opera ensemble. She has been freelancing since 2021 - with appearances in Paris, Toulouse, Rennes, Nantes and Glyndebourne, followed by acclaimed debuts in the title role of Barrie Kosky's production of Handel's Semele in Lille and at the Komische Oper Berlin, both under the musical direction of Emmanuelle Haïm. Elsa Benoit received singing and piano lessons at an early age and took her first steps on stage as a member of the Rennes and Angers-Nantes opera choirs while studying musicology: "I've always sung. This passion was there from the start," she says. She received further training at the Dutch National Opera Academy from 2011 to 2013. After competition successes and two years at the Bavarian State Opera's opera studio, the doors to her singing career were open. Elsa Benoit is also at home in concert repertoire, including with the Berliner Philharmoniker. She made her debut here in March this year, once again under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm, in Handel's oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno.

Portrait

Robin Ticciati makes his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker

Mahler’s Symphonies

How Mahler made the symphony longer, more complex, but also more expressive.

Special exhibition

Before the concert visit the special exhibition