Zubin Mehta / Stefano Bollani by Poulenc, Mahler, Alates (2016/2016), Dirigent Zubin Mehta, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Florence, Italy

Stefano Bollani and Zubin Mehta meet again: on this occasion they will perform Francis Poulenc's Concert champêtre , composed in 1928 and inspired by Wanda Landowska, heroine of the rebirth of the harpsichord, of which Poulenc subsequently wrote a transcription for piano. In the second part of the concert there is Gustav Mahler's Sixth Symphony, of which we have the story of Alma, the composer's wife: « We went up arm in arm again to his cabin in the woods, where we were sure of not being disturbed, in the midst to the trees [...] After having sketched the first movement, he came down from the woods and said: "I tried to fix your character in a theme - I don't know if I succeeded. But you have to let me do it" ». He succeeded, as Alma wrote: « No work has flowed so directly from his heart as this. We were crying that time, both of us, so deeply did this music touch us ."