Si­lence

The 4th Philharmonic Concert brings together pieces that were beacons of the avant-garde in their time and are now considered classical. The silent orchestra in Cage’s “4'33” is at once musical prank and profound, spiritual reflection but in any case an iconic work of modernism. In his “Atmosphères” Ligeti dispenses with interval harmony, rhythm and structural technique and instead makes the orchestra the place of origin of a magical sound space, a “musical labyrinth filled with sounds and delicate noises”. In his Symphony No. 5 Gustav Mahler launches the 20th century with a funeral march, intensifies it to “the chaos that is ever begetting a new world” and goes from there to the Adagietto, which emerges from silence and leads listeners back into it.