For his debut concert, he conducts Andrew Norman’s 10-minute orchestra joyride, Unstuck, which brims with invention and energy. The orchestra’s first concertmaster, American Noah Bendix-Balgley, takes the stage for Mozart’s first violin concerto before the orchestra concludes its program with Erich Korngold’s only symphony — a work that the composer never heard performed live. Completed in 1952 and dedicated to the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the work had a radio premiere in 1954 and was not performed live until 1972, 15 years after the composer’s death. Korngold’s sweeping orchestrations and brilliant orchestral color made him a huge success in Hollywood as a film composer, all of which are on display in this insightful and dramatic score.

The Berlin Philharmonic’s second program features Gustav Mahler at his most mysterious, with the tantalizing nocturnal atmosphere of his Symphony No. 7. The work, which remains the least known and least performed of all of Mahler’s symphonies, was composed during the summers of 1904 and 1905, Mahler’s only respite from the demands of conducting. The work’s wide palette of orchestral colors is filled with shadows and contrasts, and it had a mixed reception when it premiered in Prague in 1908. Nevertheless, it converted the Mahler skeptic Arnold Schoenberg, who wrote in great detail about his response to the work, stating unequivocally, “As for which movement I liked best: All of them!”

Note: both concerts are included on the Choral Union Series subscription package.