Proms 2026 Mahler’s ‘Tragic’ Sixth

Heroes fall but fight on in a programme of monumental soundscapes, poised on the edge of life and death. Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra celebrate the centenary of Hungary’s greatest living composer, György Kurtág, with a rare performance of his powerful orchestral elegy Stele, whose kaleidoscopic textures capture the commotion of a battlefield as seen by a wounded man. In Kurtág’s own words: ‘The fighting rages all around him, but he sees only a very clear, very blue sky.’ Written at one of the happiest times of the composer’s life, Mahler’s premonitory ‘Tragic’ Symphony No. 6 – haunted by children’s voices, dances and marches, by losses and agonies yet to come – broods on human frailty and resilience in music that threatens to burst the banks of the classical symphony.

Sakari Oramo © Benjamin Ealovega