Brussels Philharmonic

The sublime happiness of love, and tragic breathlessness. The Brussels Philharmonic juxtapose both emotions via Gustav Mahler's yearning Adagietto – a declaration of love to his wife Alma – and Das Lied von der Erde. Das Lied’s breathtaking final movement Der Abschied (The Farewell), in which the repeated last word ‘ewig’ (forever) fades almost inaudibly into the silence of eternity, gives even the most dispassionate listener the chills. Sorrow and rapture coming together in a passionate hymn to earthly life and the beauty of existence. Anna Clyne continues this in her elegy for strings, which meditates on love, loss and life. Music full of sorrow and transience which leaves nobody untouched.