Performance on 3 - BBC NOW, van Steen

LIVE - Presented by Catherine Bott. From St David's Hall in Cardiff, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under conductor Jac van Steen with Mahler's Symphony No. 6. Often referred to as the 'Tragic' symphony for its unsettling nature and its thunderous finale, this symphony remains one of the most enigmatic Mahler ever wrote. 'The only Sixth, despite Beethoven's Pastoral', wrote composer Alban Berg, one of its many admirers... MAHLER - Symphony No. 6 in A minor BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Jac van Steen, conductor Followed by a focus this week on composers as performers of their own pieces. Today, among other things, Dmitri Shostakovich performing his Concertino for two pianos, alongside his son Maxim, recorded in the Soviet Union in 1956.