Betsy Jolas is a ninety-six year old French – American composer who was in tonight’s audience at the Grand Théâtre de Provence to hear the European premiere of her latest work for symphony orchestra and soprano. ‘These beautiful years’ was a joint commission from the LSO, the Festival d’Aix and the Cleveland Orchestra  It is a joyful piece that includes fragments of the melody of ‘Happy Birthday’ and snippets of Mozart operas. Towards the end a solo soprano joins the orchestra as a ‘messenger angel’ to call everyone to celebrate – as the audience did when she was introduced to them at the conclusion of the piece.

Betsy Jolas

Mahler’s Symphony no. 7 in E minor, sometimes called ‘Song of the Night’, dates from 1905 and opens up a completely different world. It is a monumental eighty-minute work, which Rattle conducted from memory. In some parts it evokes the natural world, in others the brass bands that Mahler heard in his youth. It is a complex work yet Rattle’s handling of the LSO brought clarity to it. The audience loved it and the performance was rewarded with a deserved standing ovation.

Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra

Betsy Jolas ‘These Breautiful Years’; Gustav Mahler; ‘Symphony no. 7 in E minor’.