Revealing Mahler Symphony no 5 - Daniel Harding

Gustav Mahler's Symphony no 5 makes a welcome addition to the growing series of Mahler recordings with Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra on Harmonia Mundi.  Harding has been conducting this symphony for years, with many orchestras, so hearing it with the unique sound of the SRSO offers insights that enhance understanding.  This symphony has long been one of Harding's favourites, often combined in concert with Purcell or Rameau, emphasing its poise and structure.

The first movement is a Trauermarsch,  hence the steady, measured pace. Mahler grew up in Iglau (Jihlava) where there was a military garrison where no doubt he would have been aware of soldiers in procession, even in times of peace.  So this isn't a battlefield funeral so much as a funeral remembered through the prism of time, and as a symbol of the inevitability of death. Thus the trumpet call, trombones, horns and tuba in formation, strings and percussion behind. One of the strengths of this orchestra is that they sound like individuals in ensemble, not too polished, certainly not too rough, but "human". As the pace picks up, the strings, and winds scream, unleashing a torrent of protest, cut short by firm pounding chords. The march returns, more penitent than before, with a note of wistfulness which so often in Mahler means looking backwards on better times. Hushed drum beats and sweeping string lines, signalling change. The first theme returns, but the trumpet calls forwards, a courageous voice all alone.  Harding observes the structure in the first movement so it feels coherent, a procession with a clear start, pause for reflection and return to base.  I don't like listening to single movements out of context, but in this case, it's rewarding.

This brought out the connections between  the second movement, marked Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz and the first.  Both are in minor keys, and the "stormy" nature in the second is  further moderated by the quieter central section, where the "sighing" reflectiveness from the first movement finds greater expression. Again, the mood is propelled forwards by turbulence: a nice tension in this performance between the looking-back (almost waltz-like) and the inexorable pulling ahead.  Trumpets and other brass herald change, as the movement heads to expansive conclusion, though, just as in the first movement, solo voices have the last word.

The third movement marks another change. Now the mood is major and more assertive.  One of the more unusual Mahler 5's I've heard in recent years was Jakub Hrůša and the Philharmonia Orchestra (read more here). That was perceptive, recognizing that Mahler never lost the Wunderhorn impulse : his work is too coherent, too "whole" to compartmentalize in simple terms.  Harding brings out the earthy vigour in the scherzo. The introduction zips along, full of exuberance. There are dances - not just waltzes and Ländler but pas de deux between groups of instruments. On this recording, the dialogue between the solo violin and the other strings is particlarly well defined ; delicacy where it matters. In the middle section, the pace intensifies, with a "swaggering" theme that might suggest rustic dance with its connotations of fertility. But yet again, the trumpet calls forth, ushering in change. For a moment there is stillness, marked by a woodwind, before a brief final flourish.

In the adagietto, the strings creating textures that were mysterious, yet also warm.  This is another dialogue, this time between the strings, caressing the harp, in tender embrace. as if in embrace.  Willem Mengelberg described it as a "declaration of love for Alma" which is no doubt true, especially when the movement is done as a stand alone. But on a deeper level it connects to the love of life itself which pervades Mahler's work from beginning to end,  Alma being  muse and symbol of creative renewal.  This wider interpretation links the adagietto to the rest of the symphony, following as it does the scherzo with its images of vitality, and the Trauermarsch and its companion,  the second movement, with their images of death and forced change.  These concepts are drawn together in the Rondo-finale where themes that have gone before re-surface, regenerated.  While the symphony began with a march, it ends with a rondo, a lively dance, intertwning different elements in contrapunctual patterns.  Horns, trumpets and woodwinds introduce the full-throated first theme. The boisterous spirit continues throughout.  While this symphony was in the early stages of gestation, Mahler nearly died of a rupture.  Thus it's perfectly reasonable to interpret it as a  celebration of life itself : the vigour of the scherzo and the "love theme" of the adagietto both consistent with the concepts of renewal which run through all  Mahler's other symphonies.

When Harding, aged 19, was hired by Claudio Abbado as his personal assistant,  Abbado made him work on what would have been Mahler's Tenth symphony, which at the time, few others conducted. It was wise training because it taught Harding from the start to approach Mahler's work as a whole, from beginning  to end.  Harding's Mahler 10 (especially with Berlin) is outstanding. From that, and from his understanding of the grand span it grew from, we have this Mahler 5th with its keen appreciation of structure and form.

Um Mitternacht ! Mahler 5 - Andris Nelsons Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

Andris Nelsons : Photo Jens Gerber 2017

Andris Nelsons conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) in Mahler Symphony no 5 and Bernd Alois Zimmermann Nobody Knows de Trouble I've seen with Håkan Hardenberger, at the Royal Festival Hall in the first of two concerts marking the start of a five year assocaition between the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the South Bank.  The Gewandhausorchester are regular visitors to London (I first heard them with Kurt Masur) but wow, were they sounding good tonight. The dynamic between players and conductor was like electricity - nothing wasted, quick and agile. The tiniest flick of Nelson's fingers and the Leipzigers knew exactly what to do.  No messing about, no fluffed cues ! This is a virtuoso orchestra, yet so full of life and expression, and with Nelsons, there seems to be a real spark.  

Nelsons has of course conducted this symphony many times, but one of the many things I liked about this particular performance was the way he seemed to be building on the strengths of this orchestra and its unique heritage.  It made me reflect on how the Mendelssohn DNA in this orchestra creates the Leipzig sound - warm, dignified and extremely humane.  This is pertinent applied to Mahler because his music, far from being bombastic or hysterical, reveals itself best when approached with sensitivity.  Although this symphony requires a large orchestra, it operates like chamber music, where individuals pay attention to the others and every note, no matter how small, cointributes to the whole. In some ways, Mahler 5 works like a string orchestra writ large, brass and winds extending instrumental colour.  Trumpets lead, but the soul resides in the murmuring "heartbeats",  the lower-voiced strings which here seemed to pulsate like a living organism.   The celli were placed in the centre, violins and violas around them, basses behind, the winds mediating between the strings, brass and percussion.  This symphony connects to Kindertotenlieder, a song cycle with quasi-symphonic structure.  There are also connections to Um Mitternacht , another Rückert setting,  completed a fe3w months later.  "Um Mitternacht/Nahm ich in Acht/ Die Schläge meines Herzens."  Paying attention to something barely perceptible in the course of daytime bustle,  but heard most clearly in the stillness of night.  And note the final verse "Herr über Tod und Leben/Du hältst die Wacht/Um Mitternacht! "  Life is fragile, dependent on the beating of a small(ish) organ in the body.  It is also significant that the symphony was written not long after Mahler had had a near brush with death in 1901, when the symphony was in gestation.  All this is absolutely relevant to interpretation, and thus to performance.

What I liked about Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig's Mahler 5 was thus intimacy.  The symphony can be done as Big Blast Phil Spector Wall of Sound, which is of course exciting. But for me, anyway,  real excitement comes from understanding how the climaxes grow from the quiet moments where the focus is on tiny details, like the ping of the triangle, which on this occasion was every bit as powerful n its own way as the more obviously dramatic trumpet introduction, also beautifully played, echoed later by the other trumpets.  Collegiality matters in Mahler 5.  Like the human body, the music lives when its components work together.  And chamber music collegiality comes naturally to an orchestra like the Gewandhausorchester Liepzig.  At moments I felt I could hear the sound of individual players and instruments,  working together rather than absorbed into undifferentiated mass.  If a symphony should contain the world as Mahler said, this is what it might sound like. Much more hunman and personal !  In this increasingly polarized world, the last thing we need is Party Rally "excitement" in music. 

Like the beating of a heart, the Trauermarsch was neither hyper nor feeble, but steady and unostentatious.  A funeral march, but  disciplined, as one might hear in the kind of military garrison town such as Mahler grew up in. Not a flashy militarist procession !  Very deliberate, not long enoughtoi break the flow but just enough to catch the breath  - Um Mitternacht Hab' ich gedacht  hinaus in dunkle Schranken.  This emphasized the contrast with the Stürmisch bewegt section which followed, showing them as two connected parts of the same whole.  A lively Scherzo and then one of the most beautiful Adagiettos in a long time, so lovely that it was perhaps the highpoint of the evening. The harps sparkled, the strings shimmered : truly a hymn to love, though not  just in the sense of a Valentine for Alma as this section is sometimes marketed.   The love here is more transcendent : the love of life itself, a theme that flows through so much of Mahler's music like lifeblood, pumping through the heart.  The warmth and assurance that the Leipzigers do so well enriched this performance.  Yet again, consider the way Um Mitternacht concludes on a high, with a kind of mini-anthem.  Thus the Rondo Finale which pulls together the dfferent threads of the symphony, creating a sense of purposeful unity.  In short, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig trademark style,  unfussy but profound.

Nelsons has conducted Bernd Alois Zimmernann's Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen paired with Mahler 5  with the Berliner Philharmoniker since it features a stunning, jazzy trumpet part (Håkan Hardberger, too) as does the symphony. But the glow of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig is different from the shine of the Berliner Philharmoniker so this time, the combination didn't work as well.

Wunderhorn-haunted Mahler 5 - Jakub Hrůša, Philharmonia

Jakub Hrůša (photo Pavel Heinz, for IMG)

Many have wondered, "How Bohemian was Gustav Mahler?". Mahler Symphony no 5 with Jakub Hrůša and the Philharmonia Orchestra paired with Beethoven Piano Concerto No 1 in C, op 15, with soloist Piotr Anderszewski at the Royal Festival Hall, London, might shed some light. Mahler grew up in German-speaking communities in what is now Bohemia/Moravia, so the question is valid.  Though German speakers dominated society in those times, and Bohemian received less deference, as a bright, sensitive child Mahler might have absorbed the sounds around him.  Although Mahler's Fifth Symphony is not a Wunderhorn symphony, it still carries the vigorous vernacular of the folk traditions captured in Brentano and Arnim's volume Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Hrůša brought out the robust spirit that animates the symphony. Far from being neurotic, this is a symphony that celebrates life in its variety. It begins with a Trauermarsch, a funeral march, in measured steps.  Growing up in a garrison town, Mahler would often have seen soldiers in drill formation. Hence the marking "wie ein Konduct".  Thus the baleful trumpet call, followed by trombones and tuba, and the steady pace. But almost immediately, something extra happened.  The fingerings on the basses brought out the "wood" in their instruments. Hollow sounds and very spooky, evoking the sound of skeletons marching through town in Revelge, the dead resurrected in macabre afterlife.  The high winds sounded like cries of anguish. It is also significant that Mahler experienced a dangerous illness before the completion of Symphony no 5.  He, too, had beaten death and could laugh in its face.  Hrůša's approach is interpretively valid, making connections between this symphony and so much else in Mahler,  even to the quirky, dark humour of Symphony no 7.  A chilling last chord, to press the point.

This symphony was first performed with the Rückert song Um Mitternacht. In the silence of the night the poet hears his heart and realizes its beat separates life from death.The angular phrasing with which the second movement begins, underlined by "heartbeats"of the timpani, suggested the pulse of a body.  The trumpet plays a dual role. It propels forward thrust yet also stands for a single player, and individual in a larger group. A humble soldier, the human face of an army : part of the Wunderhorn ethos. In the fanfare and storm-tossed passages that follow, the trumpet leads on.  Here, an exhilaration reminiscent of Mahler's Symphony no 1. But an "individual" emerges again in the violin, lyrical but distinctive.  The third movement moves from Scherzo to stillness. There are interlocking dialogues, between trumpet and horn, between horn and flute, solo violin and strings. This dynamic suggests variety : the proliferation of different stories in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, perhaps, but also in life itself.  Now the violin part dominates, leading into more mysterious territory. Winds call, and brass. Dense textures and shadows. The violins sang freely contrasting with angular brass, wooden percussion beating tension.  Are we hearing the sounds of the night, or the sounds in a dense forest? At moments, I felt as though the spirit of the Cunning Little Vixen had infused the symphony, enhancing it with the fertility and freedom which the Vixen symbolizes. 

Perhaps the Vixen lingered, too, in the Adagietto, with its natural, unforced tenderness.  The Vixen is a feminine presence, and "feminine" themes occur quite often in Mahler.  Hrůša placed the celli between the first and second violins and violas, so an almost imperceptible tremble added to the fragility of the moment.  As so often in Mahler, good times don't last, though as in Nature, new life replaces old.  Thus the vernal freshness with which the Rondo-Finale began, developed with warmth, creating the spacious, summery freedom we encounter so often in Mahler.  Here, the rustling strings and rumbling percussion evoked a sense of dense, healthy undergrowth. It's not for nothing that so much Central European mythology springs from an aesthetic in which the forest acts as symbol for the psyche.  With this firm foundation, the brass can call heavenwards. Mahler can conclude with vibrant flourish. The journey from death to life once again traversed, vigour refreshed and revived.  


Hrůša's approach to Mahler is inspired and perceptive. It's not often that structural connections are so well understood,and performance so earthy and vital.  This concert began with Beethoven  Piano Concerto no 1 op 15 with Piotr Anderszewski, well performed but with no particular relation to Mahler 5.  Beethoven Piano Concerto no 2 will be heard with Mahler Symphony no 1 on April 12th when Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts the Philharmonia with David Fray as soloist. Will, the connections reveal themselves then ?  .

Loving Life ! Mahler 5 Petrenko RLPO, Orchestral Wolf

 

Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra are a great combination, truly major league. More's the pity we don't get to hear them  more often down south.  So hearing them on BBC Radio 3 was a treat, especially with a strong programme of Hugo Wolf orchestral music and Mahler Symphony no 5.  Full marks to Petrenko and his players but nul points to whoever wrote the script for the BBC presenter. "Mahler's Fifth is almost as popular as Beethoven's Fifth"?  Wolf was told shouldn't be doing music. And who cares whether Mahler 5 is a TV theme tune?  Even local radio would be shamed.  "Reaching out" is all very well, but top-notch musicians like this attract audiences who know what they're doing. Quality sells itself.  Liverpudlians are not oafs!   Thank goodness for Petrenko himself,  a good communicator who makes sense without dumbing down. 

Hugo Wolf wrote quite a bit of orchestral and chamber music, like the Italian Serenade, and his songs are among the finest ever written.  Aged only 17, he completed what would have been his first Symphony but lost the manuscript, though he rewrote the Scherzo and Finale.  Frank Walker, Wolf's biographer, described the Scherzo as "novel and arresting". "Over an ostinato figure on the drums a tiny germ motive enters canonically nine times, or, if we include the further shortened entries, twelve time  on flutes, oboes, bassoons and strings - all within the first four bars". This is augmented by "rising pizzicati strings" and "downward leaping staccato figures" on woodwind, developed over eighty six bars the germ motive recurring almost as many times.  A sturdy rustic trio and a "sudden rapid downward rush" of the violins introduces a triple canon.  Mercurial high jinks with a plaintive kick -  Wolf's voice is already distinctive. The Finale is a Rondo Capriccio, inventive but feels incomplete, as if Wolf's ever-impatient mind was eager for new adventures.

Wolf was an able orchestrator,  but here we heard Mahler's arrangement of the Vorspiel to Wolf's opera Der Corregidor.  The Prelude is brief, only 5 minutes, but includes an expansive figure that "lifts the curtain" to the drama. Mahler didn't change much.

The trumpet solo that marks the start of Mahler's Fifth gleamed brightly. Although the Trauermarch is a mourning procession, its steady pace is broken by sudden flarings-up and gentler passages, which often, in Mahler, signify pastoral images.  Yet the trumpet continues calling: the Stürmisch bewegt section here alert and lucid, the mysterious slow passage in this instance very well defined. Though the orchestra is huge, what Mahler had in mind was "Kammermusikton", not chaos, observant listening, as if in a chamber ensemble. We hear, for example, the quiet plucking of a single violin.  . Well defined contrasts,  keeping up the momentum. Petrenko's approach also highlighted the chorale-like patterns and contrasts of tempo and mood.  Yet sensitivity is of the essence, which the RLPO do with great finesse : how well those violins shimmered, tenderly surrounding the harp.  The Rondo Finale felt richer and more fulsome after that Adagietto.  Often I think this is where the "love agenda" really lies in this symphony, for the music surges invigorated For what is love if it doesn't enhance life  Mahler very nearly died of a rupture while the symphony was in gestation.  Perhaps the warmth in this movement represents the vital life force which animates so much of Mahler's entire output.  The coda was triumphant, but cheerful, the RLPO rushing exuberantly to the brisk conclusion. 

François-Xavier Roth LSO Wagner Berg Mahler 5 Barbican

François-Xavier Roth conducted the London Symphony Orchestra  in Wagner, Berg and Mahler at the Barbican, London,. All music is "modern": Monteverdi was new in his time, and Bach, and Wagner. Anyone who genuinely knows Roth's innovative work will know better than to expect  cliché.   This time Roth challenges assumptions in a short series the LSO calls "Beyond Romanticism: New Languages". Thus, this concert was a chance to hear Wagner, Berg and Mahler from new perspectives.

Wagner Parsifal in a concert hall, for example, and the Overture thereof, rather than a concert performance of the full opera. This was an opportunity to hear Wagner as symphonist, examining his music close-up, revealing its innate beauty.  The music seemed illuminated, as if glowing from within, the textures so transparent and so subtle that I thought of Debussy, whose credentials as a master of the modern are as great as that of the Second Viennese School.   Roth's approach suggests the "New Language" Wagner was creating in Parsifal, which also reflects the new beginnings Parsifal will bring to revive the Grail community.   Over the years, Parsifal has attracted pseudo-religious baggage. Please see my article Religion versus Religiosity.  Do we really want to end up like the monks whose fetish for ritual blinds them to the enlightenment that is Parsifal's mission   Roth's luminous textures might not please traditionalists, but his reading was perceptive , and absolutely true to the spirit of the opera.

Roth built his career on the firm foundations of the French baroque tradition. We forget that, in their time, Lully  was "new" and Rameau perceived as a dangerous radical. The connections between the baroque and the modern are very strong indeed, as are the implications for performance practice. Hence the inner discipline of Roth's style, reflecting an aesthetic that stems from Voltaire and Descartes.  It's not for nothing that Roth is the most intuitive interpreter of Pierre Boulez.  This intelligence informed this performance of Alban Berg's Seven Early Songs.  Camilla Tilling, the soloist, was one of Benjamin Zander's discoveries. She gave a good enough performance here, if a bit too  subdued. This wasn't a problem because the songs are so well known, we can live with hearing them as orchestral pieces for a change. Even though  there were infelicities in the playing at times, the LSO gave a thoughtful account, throwing emphasis on the orchestration.

Although Mahler Symphony no 5 is ubiquitous, that doesn't necessarily mean that we really know it. The better a piece is, the more open it is to fresh thinking.  Roth and the LSO began with an explosive, exuberant start, emphasizing the boldness of Mahler's concept. The trumpets sounded exuberantly, as if they were marching into battle. But that's part of the inner meaning of the symphony. It's scored for huge forces to lull the literal minded into thinking it's all excitement .  The real excitement, though, lies in its contradictions.

This symphony is not all blast and fanfare. Indeed, Mahler premiered it in Vienna’s Kleinen Musikvereinsaal, to emphasize its “Kammermusikton”. Thus Roth observed the changes of dynamic, from loud and forceful, to quiet but equally potent. It's chamber music, on a big scale, but chamber music in the importance of detail.  Mahler embeds within this symphony different units which function like miniature chamber ensembles. There are interlocking dialogues, between trumpet and horn, between horn and flute, solo violin and strings. The trumpet part is important, but it weaves in and out throughout, leading and tantalizing,  The timpani provide much of the low, rumbling undercurrent that flows throughout the symphony, but isn’t always appreciated, especially as they are played extremely quietly, easily lost in the mass of noisy performance.  The "storm" theme was well articulated, the low brass and winds working  together to  create the image of distant thunder, or a murmur of something undefined and imperceptible.

It's significant that Mahler nearly died in 1901, while this symphony was in gestation. Indeed, the symphony was first performed with the Rückert setting, Um Mitternacht. In the silence of the night the poet hears his heart and realizes its beat separates life from death. Rückert places his faith in God, but for Mahler, more deist than true believer, it’s more complex. The Trauermarsch in this symphony is counterbalanced by the passionate Adagietto and Finale, music of positive energy.   There was some rough abandon in the playing, but all to the good, I thought, since it underlined the contrasts.  Roth's conducting style is energetic - he has conducted Lully with a staff - and this gives his performances an earthy punchiness that's quite distinctive.  Not that he moves a lot - he conducts with both hands, as Boulez did. Anyone can read Roth's CV off Google, but he's a very individual conductor who has to be experienced live for full effect.

Legendary Mahler 5 released - Horenstein

At last, a remastered release of  the legendary Jascha Horenstein  Mahler Symphony no 5, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra recorded at the Edinburgh Festival in 1961. It's available for digital download from  Pristine Classical, the specialist supplier.

"And so it came to pass that on the night of 31st August, 1961, somebody, somewhere, was listening to the radio broadcast that evening, live from the annual Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, with tape reels loaded up, poised and ready to press record as the BBC announcer began his introduction to the evening's main concert attraction: Jascha Horenstein would be conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony.  Perhaps the unknown sound recordist was already aware of Horenstein's reputation in this field. Perhaps he was simply excited to hear a performance of this then-somewhat-neglected composer's symphonic work. Perhaps he was merely curious. I don't have any clues on this front. But the tape survived and, fifty-something years later, a copy arrived in the hands of the conductor's cousin, Misha Horenstein, who has dedicated a good part of his life's energies into collecting together as comprehensive an archive of Jascha's work as is possible." writes Andrew Rose, head of Pristine Classical

Horenstein's "renown in the works of Mahler is legendary. Yet two major symphonies have eluded us and for many years were believed unrecorded: the second remains in this limbo (though who knows?...); the fifth is now known to exist in no less than three concert recordings, all unreleased. This week we finally fill that gap in Jascha Horenstein's catalogue with the most brilliant, electrifying performance of those three, a performance with the Berlin Philharmonic which easily demonstrates the conductor's abilities as one of the great Mahlerian's of all time, a performance that all involved would surely be proud of."

"Sometimes mythical, lost recordings turn up, then fail to quite live up to expectations. It's as if they sounded better in the imagination than in reality. That is not the case here - indeed, I suspect for many this will exceed their expectations, and then some."

As Mischa Horenstein, cousin of the conductor, writes "I listened to the whole symphony and compliment you on a grand job. You have successfully managed that compromise between cleaning up a pretty miserable recording and maintaining good sound, no, improving it tremendously, so that's terrific. The sound is very similar to what I remember from the JH concerts I attended, big orchestra, wide dynamic range, powerful bass line. Bravo!"

Please click HERE for a link to purchase Click HERE for a review

Lachenmann Mahler Arditti Nott Bamberg Prom 5

Lachenmann and Mahler at BBC Prom 5, with The Arditti Quartet,and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaonathan Nott.

"A musical negativa", Hans Werner Henze called Helmut Lachenmann. Henze, though not a Darmstadt devotee or theory hardliner, was innovative in his own way, so his views carry weight. In any case, Lachenmann thrived in the attention Henze generated, rather like Birtwistle thrived on the "Bad Boy" image created by the unsubstantiated story about Britten walking out of Birtwistle. Britten could read scores, and wouldn't have invited Birtwistle to Aldeburgh in the first place if he hadn't thought him worthwhile. You don't have to "like" music to appreciate its worth.

Lachenmann's Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied (1980) was an excellent choice for BBC Prom 5, whose audiences range from new music devotees to generalists who just go the Proms for a rousing night out. Even audiences with no idea who Lachenmann is will recognize the snatches of Bach, Handel, Haydn and the wacky waltzes and jazz riffs. These serve as landmarks, giving direction to a long work. Indeed, I think they're one of Lachenmann's jokes, since there is a lot more to the piece than a merry dance through German music history.

The Arditti Quartet can play even the most difficult works,with myriad virtuoso techniques. Modern music just wouldn't be possible without them. They made possible the modern revival of string quartet repertoire. I remember Irvine Arditti demonstrating the difference bretween pppp and pppppp.

One of the criticisms of Lachenmann is that he has a thing for gymnastic technical displays , sometimes for their own sake, which is why I've always preferred his more condensed chamber music to his larger scale works. Hearing Xenakis's  Pithoprakta, (1955-6) together with Lachernmann's Schreiben (2003) didn't do Lachenmann any favours. Tanzsuite for Deutschandlied works beautifully for me because at its core is a string quartet, the orchestra adding commentary and special effects, like the imaginative piano passages, magnificent percussion rolls, and sudden interjections from the brass.The long, barely audible introduction, the silences, the flurries of different pizzicato and percussive techniques  sudden swoons across the keyboard, a single chord on piano : immensely satisfying as a meditative zen sort of experience.

The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra is very good and enjoys a considerable reputation. The town is gorgeous though small, but the musicians are well served by the local community and university. The orchestra was playing Mahler in the 1960's under Joseph Keilberth. About ten years ago, Jonathan Nott recorded a series of Mahler symphonies with them where each symphony was paired with a modern work, including Henze. I liked Nott's Mahler 5 at the time, but less so on repeat hearings. This Proms performance was good enough and the Bambergers are always worth hearing.  Today I listened to the pre concert talk. Is that the level the BBC expect from their audiences? .

12/12/12 Jurowski LPO Grisey Quatre Chants Mahler 5

Vladimir Jurowski conducts the LPO in Mahler's Symphony no 5  on 12/12/12. We'll never see dates like that again. Some could deduce  Portents of Doom but maybe we're safe, as the concert doesn't start at 12 past 12.

Even though music is abstract, listening is a subjective experience.  Music itself is neutral, but we would not be human if we did not respond emotionally and carry unconscious connotations into the process. We might read Portents of Doom into this symphony since Mahler nearly died while writing it. However, the thought of haemorrhoids should stop excess sentimentality.

Jurowski is no fool. He's programmed Mahler with Gérard Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.  As Mahler said,"music is more than just the notes". When we listen, can we think how our responses are being channeled?  For me this is one of the truly great song cycles of the last 50 years. In the last 6 years,  it's been heard live in London at least 4 times, twice I think with Barbara Hannigan. Jurowski's soloist is Alison Bell. The classic recording is Catherine Dubosc, with Cambreling.

Grisey was interested in "psychoacoustics", which sounds terrible, but what that means is intense awareness of how what we hear affects how the brain rocesses what comes through our ears, and vice versa. A lot of his music seems attuned to natural body rhythms, so you hear tiny nuances. It's surprisingly therapeutic without actually being designed to be that way. This is not waffly New Age stuff.   It's mentally challenging because it needs careful attention, but somehow it connects to your pulse, as natural as breathing. Often I play this music on continuous loop, so it "evolves" like it's alive.

 Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil. refers to the idea of "crossing the threshold", between life and death, between struggle and sublimation, a flux between levels of consciousness. It works like deep meditation, releasing the soul so it can be free. Shortly after it was completed Grisey died suddenly but that's pure coincidence. There's nothing spooky about that at all, even though Grisey's  title comes from a line in Claude Vivier's Glaubst du, an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele? That earlier piece refers to being stabbed and crossing over into the unknown. Shortly after, Vivier (ironic name) was murdered by a casual stranger in almost exactly the same circumstances. (Lots about Vivier elsewhere on this site.)

Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil.starts with long semi-silence then suddenly waving chords enter, not discordant, but disjointed, This isn't firm ground but exploratory. "De....qui....se....doit....." sings the soprano, vertical sounds over the hazy horizontals around her. Gradually the patterns merge, the Voice part disintegrates and reforms in abstract, transcended form, soaring like an arc, stretching outwards into space. Then the incantation, based on sacred Egyptian texts instructing the soul on its journey from death to immortality. The texts are fragmented, and the music hovers as if intuiting the gaps in the transmission. Each stage in the ritual is numbered and intoned, for what's even more important than the detail is the sense of inexorable forward movement. "Laisse moi passer, laisse moi passer"....then "formule pour être un dieu"'.

More wonderfully shaped moving sound, deep timbred instruments like contrabass clarinet, muted tubas and trumpet, contrasted with the high voice. "Le voix s'épand dans l'ombre". Only the rumble of drums like distant thunder and barely perceptible rustling, hurrying sounds like wind. We're crossing something..... Circular arching trumpet sounds, more rustling, speeding up, punctuated by sharp thwacks on percussion and harp. Then waddling tuba and screeching (but harmonic! ) saxophones and clarinets. We enter a new place, vivid with clear light. The soprano's singing text from the Epic of Gilgamesh. This is the "death of civilization". Human bodies have turned into a vast sea of clay, but to the prophet, it's a terrace open onto an endless horizon. The violin part is painfully beautiful, and there's a steady hum vibrating in the background. Of the final Berceuse, Grisey said it's not a lullaby but "music to the dawning of humanity finally liberated of its nightmare".

Prom 69 Rihm Mahler Pittsburgh Honeck

The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's two BBC Proms 68 and 69 dovetailed nicely, again proving the adage, "Music should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed".

When Anne Sophie Mutter plays Wolfgang Rihm's Gesungene Zeit (Time Chant) she brings out its profound spirituality. Rihm wrote the piece for her 20 years ago, specifically attuned to her strengths and to the violin she prefers. It is one of her signature pieces. She's recorded it twice, first with Levine and more recently with Alan Gilbert (new release on DG here).  In twenty years much has happened to Mutter - and to us - so hearing the piece again in this context is deeply moving. Mutter showed how music can lift us to emotional and spiritual levels which transcend the ordinary grind of life.

Knowing how high profile this Prom would be, Mutter seemed charged with supernatural intensity.  The exceedingly high tessitura seemed to defy gravity, soaring into a stratosphere few dare explore. Her technique is so perfect that she can create pitch so high it's almost beyond the threshold of human hearing. This is the aria of an angel. No human voice could sustain legato that long and at that pitch. The music seems to float in the air, untrammelled by normal constraints. At times it swoops gently down towards the other instruments, lifting them upwards too. Two glorious tumults, when all seem to be singing together. Dark murmuring chorale (listen to the contrabassoona and low winds), col legno meeting tapping in the percussion.  Mutter's line sweeps upwards and hovers. One last low-flying farewell to the orchestra and then back into the stratosphere, beyond mortal realm.

It would be tempting to draw parallels between Rihm's Gesungene Zeit and Mahler's Symphony no 5, but Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra wisely stick to what's in the score. Mahler's views on the chamber-like nature of the piece are fairly clear. The Adagietto has acquired a lachrymose reputation through its use in movies and such things as Compilations for Valentine's Day and so on, but the symphony itself is much greater than popular myth. (There is a long story attached to how this developed, but I won't go into that here). Honeck respects the structural logic of the symphony, so this a fiull bodied, solid reading, satisfying though not specially spectacular.

But why start the Prom with the Prelude to Lohengrin Act 1? It's a grand opening, but listeners automatically go into Wagner-mode, thinking of what will follow in the opera. The days of "bleeding chunks" are long gone, since  nowadays, we're more accustomed to more integrated and demanding programmes. Lohengrin always sounds wonderful, but it might have been better to concentrate on Rihm and Mahler.

Please read about Prom  68 where Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony played Beethoven Tchaikovsky but not Braunfels. There's more on Braunfels on this site than anywhere other than the Braunfels website itself. There's also plenty more about Wolfgang Rihm on this site. Like Braunfels, Rihm's not known to millions, but to tens of thousands, as he's probably one of the most important European composers of our time. Mutter is no fool artistically, she knows why she likes playing Rihm.
photo copyright : Harald Hoffmann

Mahler Rudolf Barshai 1924-2010

Rudolf Barshai died Tuesday. He was a violist, who founded chamber ensembles and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. As a conductor, he was prominent enough to premiere Shostakovich's 14th Symphony in 1969. Despite his status in Russia, Barshai emigrated to Israel in 1976.

I didn't discover him until 1999, when a recording he'd made for an extremely obscure independent label started getting attention. Laurel Record, not Laurel Records, note, that's how small-time it was.  Barshai conducted Mahler's 5th Symphony with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. It was a word of mouth success because Laurel didn't have marketing clout or even proper distribution. In many ways this rarity value added to its mystique because there was no Amazon in those days.  Also, the idea of youth orchestras was relatively new, too, not like now when they're everywhere and praised for emotive reasons, regardless of how they actually play. So in 1999, we adored Barshai's Mahler 5 because it was so fresh and different.

It's a live recording, and the players are above average. Some have gone on to bigger things. But what's good about it is that Barshai manages to combine youthful enthusiasm with sensitivity and discipline. Not rough and tumble hyper emotionalism, but an understanding of form. Barshai's background as a soloist and chamber musician helped him understand the sophistication in this symphony, while inspiring the young musicians to play with intense passion. As the years have passed, there have been better M5's but this one has an innocence that's still appealing. Barshai also went on to write a performing version of Mahler's 10th Symphony which is less rounded than Cooke 3, which is now standard. Both were issued as a set by ultra cheap Brilliant Classics in 2002.  (They also issued the complete Shostakovich Symphonies – a box for under £10). Time has tempered my enthusiasm but they're still worth hearing because they're fun and a reminder of simpler times.

Gergiev Mahler 4 & 5 Prom 26

When Gergiev conducted Mahler's Fourth symphony at the Barbican in 2008, my friend and I were seated across the aisle from each other. At first we were numb. Then, spontaneously, we looked at each other in horror. "The worst experience of my concert-going life," said my friend, who has been listening for over six decades. Would Prom 26 be better?

This time Gergiev conducted the World Orchestra for Peace, founded by George Solti in 1995. There are lots of summer season orchestras like these. Some, like the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, really are astounding, attracting the best musicians in the world, fired by intense musical passion. Others, like Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, are genuinely "orchestras for peace", where the players risk their lives to participate. They don't have money to train, travel, etc. so it's a real an act of faith when they come together. Musically, they're pretty good, considering. But pulling together musicians from all over doesn't automatically ensure anything.

Perhaps Gergiev has learned from the débacle of his Mahler cycler in 2008. This Mahler 4 was less self indulgent, but also without character. The LSO musicians then looked shocked, but at least that gave the performance tension since Gergiev wanted them to go one way, and they, with their extensive experience, didn't.  This time, everyone was on best behaviour but the result was curiously inert. When music is basically as good as this, there always will be people who enjoy it. But separating performance from the music itself  is another matter. There were some nice details, as to be expected, but overall there wasn't much coherence. Nothing offensive, but nothing of insight. Not even in the cataclysm at the end of the third movement, which marks the passage from death to the afterlife.

At least this time round Gergiev had a decent soloist who  realizes that Das himmlische Leben isn't a West End show tune. On the other hand, there's more to it than feast after famine. Camilla Tilling was one of Ben Zander's discoveries years ago, and has matured. Good move to choose her, she delivered well.

In theory an extremely good conductor could carry off Mahler 4 and 5 in the same programme. There are links, but it would take a real Mahler specialist to bring them out.  The Fifth can be played with chamber-like lucidity, reflecting the grace of the Fourth . But here they don't connect. The Fifth is popular when it's loud so no doubt there will have been many who enjoyed this more than I could, though I tried..
Please  listen to the Orchestre de Paris Mahler cycle online. It's wonderful, a fabulous resource, and links to Henry-Louis de La Grange talk too.

Mahler plays Mahler piano

Who's that pianist? Gustav Mahler himself playing Mahler in piano transcription. This is the first movement of Symphony no 5.  It's a historic moment though it might not have seemed so at the time. A German company called Welte Mignon invented a new process for recording sound, that was much better anything else at the time. To publicise their new system, they got famous composers to play their own music. So on 9th November 1905, Mahler sits down and does his thing.

He recorded four pieces, Mahler 5/1, Mahler 4/4, and two songs, Ging heut morgen übers Feld and the early Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald.  Before radio and recordings, many people did music at home, so piano transcriptions of everything were standard practice.  Do it Yourself Wagner, for example. People bought scores like they buy MP3s today . That's how composers and publishers made money, and how music spread outside the concert hall or opera stage.  If you play your own, you learn the tunes. Transcriptions were important teaching tools, too, because musicians had to analyze what make a piece work in its essentials.

I've picked M5/1 because it shows how Mahler focuses on a clean, direct line, darkening the tone to suggest the larger forces in an orchestra. Oddly enough, it makes me think of some of his earliest songs, like Zu Straßburg auf der Schanz. Here he is coming out of the Wunderhorn phase, but are Wunderhorn settings so far from his mind?

His tempi are fast, but that's because he's trying to squeeze each piece into the short time frame the technology was limited to.  It's completely wrong to assume that these are any indication of how he wanted the symphonies to sound. What he was doing here was experimenting with technology, not setting down a sacred template for performance practice. He's very free because it's a one-off experiment.

What's also interesting is what it tells us about Mahler. No Luddite, no technophobe. Here he is playing "new" music, written only 3 years before,  for people with the very latest new invention. He was the man who followed up on Freud, took an interest in leftish politics, read about Eastern philosophy, and saw Schoenberg's potential.  Not a backward thinker, but someone who cared about the past because it informed the future.

Welte Mignon folded for many reasons, and recording went back to more primitive methods, which is why recordings of the 1920's and 30's often sound horrible. But Welte Mignon captured a moment, like a snapshot in time. Obviously, copyright has long expired, which is why these pieces keep popping up on CD.