Prom 72, Mahler Symphony no 6 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Harding conducting - an incandescent experience, igniting with such force that it seemed to sear itself into the soul. Mahler himself said that the symphony "would pose riddles only to be solved by a generation which has assimilated and digested my first five symphonies". What might these riddles be? This symphony causes controversy, much of it supposition and hearsay. Why the tag "Tragic"? Was Mahler really so superstitious that he thought a hammer blow might end his life. And the movement order - even if you know nothing else about the symphony you can sound smart screaming SA/AS. So all the more reason we need to approach Mahler's Sixth on musical terms and value genuine insight.
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra are outstanding, and their playing on this occasion seemed truly inspired. Daniel Harding's Mahler credentials go back to his teens, when he was appointed by Claudio Abbado as his assistant and gave him Mahler's symphony no 10 to work on. A very wise move. Harding digested more than the first five symphonies. He assimiliated Mahler's output from beginning to end. Moreover, with the Tenth there was then no received performance tradition: Harding had to find his own, original way. The Tenth is also a good way to start because it's unfinished: thinking in terms of open-ended possibility often stimulates insight. Abbado was more than a great musician : he understood life.
Harding has worked with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for many years. He conducted the Tenth with the orchestra, a recording that still stands as a benchmark (though I rate even higher his later version with the Berliner Philharmoniker). He's conducted Mahler's 6th several times, including with Berlin, but this performance with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra was even better still: free spirited and seemingly spontaneous, often a sign that conductor and orchestra spark the best in each other. They repeat their Mahler Symphony no 6 at KKL Lucerne later this week in a hall whose acoustic picks up more detail than the Royal Albert Hall ever could.
The first movement, marked Allegro energetico, blazed from the start. Harding's attack was bracing, for the energyn here represents a battle, a battle for life against the inevitable march of time. Decisiveness matters on a battlefield: trust your instincts and don't flaff about. The March rhythms were clearly defined, drum rolls and timpani done not so much with military precision as with a passionate sense of elation. The orchestra, like the protagonist, relishes challenge. Thus the flow between ferociousness and warmth. Bright, lively textures in the strings livening the golden richness this orchestra does so well, contrasting well with the chill that creeps into the strings as the symphony progresses. As so often in Mahler. the quiet moments are the most telling. The woodwind melody rose seductively, suggesting confident self-awareness. The cowbells connect to this theme because they're meant to be heard from a distance. They're elusive, the way that ideals are elusive. They may evoke memories of summers past, but quite possibly they are more than that. Cowbells reassure a farmer that his cows are not lost, even when they're beyond sight. Interpretively, very significant. When the march returned, the beat was quieter but with more frenzy in the strings and brass, the sense of impending horror felt almost overwhelming. But Mahler's little hints already indicate that something positive may survive after annihilation.
The Andante was exquisite: the benefits of an orchestra as good as the Viennese where every section is strong. The melody in the strings was so beautifully done it felt almost painful, but it should, for loss means more when what is lost was worth having. Yet the faint suggestion of dance implies circular movement - cycles of change. Consider the Auferstehn in Symphony no 2 and the Abschied in Das Lied von der Erde. Whatever the "Alma" motif represents, it embodies the idea of an entity finding its own path. Trombones and bassoons created a grotesque parody of dance, marking the return of the march. Striking decelerating diminuendo and the woodwind line, escaping as if on tip toe. A Scherzo that was magnificently wild - demonic by turns, yet spookiest when hushed, the brass muffled and sinister. When the Scherzo precedes the Andante, the effect is exhausting and works well with interpretations that place the symphony as a precursor of the agony of the 20th century, and so on. Andante first places more on the personal and on the connections with Mahler's metaphysics of life and rebirth. If the answer was easy, there wouldn't be a debate. The current edition, sponsoreed by Reinhold Kubik of the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft states Andante first, the way Mahler performed it.
Perhaps the clue to Mahler's "riddle" lies in the Finale? The tuba broods ominously, bassoons call, but trumpets, as ever, lead forward, and harps create an image of heaven , either angels or the last movement of Symphony no 4. The March resumes, Harding leading his forces full forward. But the strings of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra glowed and the celesta added magic. The sound swelled, as expansive as the peaks of the Salzkammergut. The size and variety in the orchestra is relevant, since large forces can melt into chaos unless purposefully managed. To paraphrase Mahler, "an orchestra encompasses the world". Good minds, and good conductors, lead us ahead.
Perhaps what Mahler is depicting here is a universal horizon, a panorama so great that it transcends the world. So often I've written about what mountains symbolize in Mahler - journeys made in struggle, rewarded by peaks from which one might imagine heaven, or the glory of life itself. In Mahler's Symphony no 3 the craggy terrain becomes spiritual, the Finale ending with a glorious vision of endless possibilities. In Harding's Mahler 6 with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Finale was exhilarating - wildness and ecstasy alternating, masterfully defined. The mood grew ominous, even cold, But does the hammer blow mean death or is it a way of saying "No! " to something ? From what we know of Mahler the man, he was rational not superstitious, though some of those around him were pretty gullible. That final, catastrophic crash - with no hammer blow - was so powerful that it knocked the audience breathless. In many ways, it's more terrifying "not" to have simple solutions. Whatever happens next, we cannot know, but Mahler (via Harding and the VPO) made us pay attention. Six thousand people clapped and stamped their feet in applause..
Photos: Roger Thomas
Stravinsky and Shostakovich with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This Prom was typical of Jurowski's genius for intelligent, musically astute programming : Stravinsky's Funeral Song at one end, and Shostakovich Symphony no 11, two pillars, with Britten's Russian Funeral as supporting buttress, with Prokofiev's Violin Concerto no 1 in D between them. When even Vladimir Putin worries about planetary catastrophe we should need to think how and why we got into a world where some people admire nutcases with nukes.
Stravinsky's Funeral Song was revealed in December last year in St Petersburg, where it had lain undiscovered for over 100 years. For more background and its significance, please read my article Lost No More : Stravinsky Funeral Song. Gergiev conducted that performance in a superlative programme connecting Stravinsky with Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, whose funeral it marked. These connections are important, because the piece on its own is so short that its impact won't be appreciated out of context. Gergiev linked it to Rimsky-Korsakov The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and to Stravinsky's The Firebird, a wonderfully unified concept, which Jurowski is doing too at the Royal Festival Hall in February 2018, in a slightly different programme. Mark your calendars. Combining Stravinsky and Rimsky-Korsakov is musically litterate and satisfying, but for this performance, Jurowski had to fulfil the rigid Proms diktats about dates and nationalism.
Before the Shostakovich symphony, though, Jurowski programmed Benjamin Britten's Russian Funeral (1936), which sets the hymn "You fell as Heroes" commemorating the massacres of the protesters of 1905, which Shostakovich was to incorporate into his Eleventh Symphony in 1957. Earlier this Proms season, we heard Britten's Ballad of Heroes, which has long been misunderstood because listeners can't get past the idea that being anti-war doesn't preclude protest in other forms. The ballad was written after the Spanish Civil War - it's not a call to battle, but a mark of respect for those killed and a protest against oppression. Please read my piece on it HERE. Hearing Britten before Shostakovich in this context emphasizes the idea of universal struggle against oppression, wherever it might happen, or when.
Stravinsky's Funeral Song is about one man and highly personal, while Shostakovich's Symphony no 11 marks the death of multitudes. In 1905, people were massacred on the streets of St Petersburg. Twelve years later, the Tsar was overthrown for good. Thus the scale of the piece, which not only marks the deaths of 1905, but also the end of Old Russia and the beginning of the New. Thus the mute stillness of the First Movement "In the Square of the Winter Palace" with its ominous rumblings, and trumpet calls, which gave way to the the more abstract "soaring" theme, rising above the frozen ground, so to speak, as tension gradually rose with percussion defining a staccato growl. . Perhaps we can imagine the walls of the palace looming in the solid rising figures but these could also symbolize impenetrable forces of repression.Against these, the winds of change blow when the strings fly into action, screaming in swirling, wayward lines. Jurowski's sense of form keeps the scene in sharp definition.
Jurowski conducted with military precision, contrasting the violence of the attack and the chaos it sliced through. Thus the eerie silence from which the Funeral Elegy emerged : people are lying dead, but their voices will be heard above. If anything, Jurowski's control was even more impressive here, allowing the strings and winds to wail, without compromising into insincere sentiment. Utterly justifying the connection between this symphony and Stravinsky's Funeral Song. A magnificent finale, where the angular repetitions march forwards with ferocity. Though Jurowski, by nature, is a gentle person, he can be intensely passionate when he needs to be, as truly spiritual people often are. Where once the soldiers marched on the people, the people now march forth in triumph. Fanfares can be banal, but Jurowski's clear minded intelligence doesn't degenerate. The heart of this finale isn't the noise, but the quiet cor anglais and bass clarinet themes. Eventually the Elegy returned, the tocsin bells tolling clearly above the tumult. the music breaks off suddenly - the struggle isn't over. La lutte continua ! everywhere and at all times. Including the present.
Between the two pillars and supporting buttress of Jurowski's programme, Stravinsky's arrangement of Song of the Volga Boatmen and Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No 1 in D with Alina Ibragimova, ratherb diluting the overall impact, but that's the Proms for you.
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Proms ought to be top priority. One of the greatest orchestras in the world, and in Mahler, too, with Daniel Harding , one of the most interesting conductors around. So why has the BBC Proms Team shunted it aside by a whole hour to accommodate "The 2017 Winning poems inspired by Music in the Proms " ??? Strange priorities - not music. It's not even "about" poetry, which springs from inspired source but a game show - audience participation exploited to boost some management nerd's marketing targets. With all respect to those taking part, there is a world of difference between writing a poem about a Prom and actually listening to music. Game show tactics to get people to listen to music? Top flight poetry, maybe but game show spin-off? Further evidence of the way BBC management downgrades music. Why not put the poetry show at 630, so the music audience don't miss out if they turn up at 730 ? Or put Andras Schiff at 845 instead of 930 so music lovers can attend both Proms, and still catch the bus home?
For years now, there's been no music on BBC Radio 3 after 10 pm, as if music people go to bed early. Nuts ! By definition, concert goers are nightbirds. It;'s what we do. Some of the most interesting music on BBC R3 is late night broadcast, which fortunately we can access anytime online. Now the BBC's talking about taking "slow radio" to a "new level" Please read Catherine Bennett "Slow radio is a silly idea"one of the sharpest pieces Guardian culture's done in years Analytical thinking, instead of the pap that passes for journalism these days.
Sure, life is too frantic, but mindless vacuousness is not the answer. I loved Aldeburgh's Messiaen bird marathon last year but that at least had a point. "Slow radio" as envisaged by BBC Radio 3 is mindless corporate muddlespeak taken to a new level Ambient sound recordings do exist (I have some from my New Age years) but they're pointless unless you choose to listen, when you can't do stuff in the real world. In any case, good serious music can transport you to another plane very effectively indeed. Maybe BBC Radio 3 people should try it sometime, instead of chasing gimmicks and marketing fallacies. But after this year's Proms, I suspect that, while some at the BBC Proms Team like music, some at BBC Radio 3 do not.
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| Daniele Gatti, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, credit Annedokter |
Danielle Gatti and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam with Haydn Symphony No. 82 in C major, 'The Bear' and Mahler Symphony no 4 at Prom 66 at the Royal Albert Hall. A combination which enhanced both parts of the programme. A lively, agile Haydn bringing out its warm hearted humour. Two hundred and fifty years ago, people thought bear dancing was entertainment. Wild animals tamed and controlled by man! Nowadays, we realize that the wild animals were the men and the bears victims of torture. Since bears can't actually dance, the music they danced to was bucolic. Hence the Dudelsack (bagpipes) with its earthy drone. A top-flight composer, writing for rich folks, (who probably laughed at the peasants, too) and now, a top-flight orchestra playing for the Proms. What irony! But better that than reality.
And so to Mahler's Symphony no 4, the last true Wunderhorn symphony, which connects to a world long past, where barbarism against people was normal, even admired. It's often assumed that this symphony is cheerful and sunny, and in some contexts it does work very well that way. But beneath the bucolic charm, there's horror. Elftausend Jungfrauen zu tanzen sich trauen, Sankt Ursula selbst dazu Lacht. But St. Ursula caused the death of 11,000 virgins, who followed her in a Crusade across Europe. Most never got to the Holy Land, and even if they had, for what purpose? More irony - sainthood and delusion, the message still relevant in our supposedly more enlightened times. But it's OK ! the dead kids are singing in Heaven, and there's lots to eat. The animals, like the children, are happy to die. Wir führen ein geduldig's, Unschuldig's, geduldig's, Ein liebliches Lämmlein zu Tod. (Please see my article Why Greedy Kids in Mahler 4)
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| Mahler, Mengelberg and Diepenbrook, 1904 |
The interpretation of the final movement in this symphony has a bearing on performance, though there are many possible ways of doing it. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam have been doing it since 1904, when it was radical New Music. Yet music is endlessly reborn anew in each performance - different players, different listeners, always something new to discover. That's yet another hidden message embedded in Mahler's Fourth Symphony. Das himmlisches Leben connects to Das irdische Leben, where a child starves because its mother keeps promising to feed it, but doesn't. And so the dilemma of being an artist with integrity, who creates whether the public gets it or not. Mahler's sympathies lie with the artist..
Fortunately some listeners do get it. Gatti's approach to the symphony is refined but purposeful, never losing sight of the ultimate goal. Bedächtig. Nicht eilen and In gemächlicher bewungen. Ohne hast : No need to rush, but rather linger in the present, or more accurately, perhaps, in memories of a sunnier past. Because good things will end. Just as in Mahler's Symphony no 2, we linger as long as possible, resisting the inevitable. Gatti doesn't drag though, and his pace is sunlit. The Ländler rhythms suggest folk music, peasants - and peasant children - dancing. The RCOA can do rustic with elegance. For all we know, to a Dudelsack or similar middle-European instrument : nothing sophisticated. Mahler pushes forth with the theme for solo violin, a reference to Freund Hein, the Fiddler whose presence leads to Death. The Pied Piper, like St Ursula, leading the innocent to doom. Thus the macabre scordatura tuning. In deliberate contrast, the third movement, marked Ruhevoll, was particularly well defined. The cataclysmic final section, with its blazing trumpets, timpani and cymbals resolving back to the gentler theme highlighted with harps was good too, preparing the way for the all-important last movement.
The soloist here was Chen Reiss. A pleasant voice, on the lighter side, which often works well in this part. though it's not essential, since it can support quite a lot of sensuality, which is important, since the text refers to earthly, earthy pleasures, like red meat. It has been done extremely well by heftier voices and even by mezzos. Gatti and the orchestra supplied the humour. Wonderful "animal" noises like the bleating of sheep and the wailing of oxen. The orchestra also supplied the colour and drama - sharp, focused playing, reminding us that the knife-like edge is never far away, even in this pastoral vision.
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| photo : Takeshi Kuboki, Amagasaki, Japan 2012 |
And the days dwindle down to a precious few, September, November...
And these precious days I'd spend with you".
In Prom 63, Semyon Bychkov conducted Kiril Gerstein and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Taneyev, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in an almost identical programme to the concert they did at the Barbican last October in their Tchaikovsky Project Series. But Bychkov, Gerstein and the BBC SO are always worth hearing. It was also interesting to listen to Bychkov's Manfred Symphony op 58 again, in the space of a week, since Riccardo Chailly conducted the same symphony at the opening gala of the Lucerne Festival, paired with Mendelssohn's A Midsummers Night's Dream.
Two different perspectives, two different approaches but both valid and both worthwhile. Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra were astonishingly good: the magical transparency of Mendelssohn enhancing the High Romantic supernatural nature of Tchaikovsky's Manfred. A truly illuminating, inspired performance! Much as I love the BBC SO, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra are altogether in a more spectacular league, the musicians hand picked from the finest orchestras in Europe, playing together for love. Always a special occasion; no comparisons really possible. Chailly's Prom last week with the La Scala Philharmonic came nowhere near, partly because the programme (Brahms and Respighi) was less inspired. So track down Chailly's Lucerne Mendelssohn and Manfred, which was filmed live for broadcast. No disrespect to Bychkov, but Lucerne was exceptional.
Bychkov framed Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony op 58 with Sergei Taneyev's Oresteia op 6 (1889) placing the focus on Taneyev's connections to Tchaikovsky. In a way, this diminishes Taneyev, for Oresteia isn't very Tchaikovskian. It's a tone poem based on Greek mythology which surprisingly doesn't figure much in Russian repertoire, at least from the assumptions we now have about the style. A lovely violin melody weaves through the piece, connecting fast-flowing passages that suggest, perhaps the Furies, wild climaxes contrasted with a serene section , harps decorating strings. Bychkov's reasons for pairing this with Manfred are much stronger. Orestes is a doomed hero, who kills his mother urged by his sister, and is himself killed by a snake.
Thus the cosmic struggle in Manfred, which Byron set in the high Alps. In Byron's time, the Alps symbolized danger, the vastness of nature dwarfing humankind. Schumann's Manfred is Romantic in the true, wild Germanic sense. Tchaikovsky, however. was even more a man of the theatre, so Bychkov's approach emphasized the panoramic, scenic aspects of the piece. He created the backdrop to the drama vividly: generous, sweeping lines suggesting limitless horizons. As the tempo quickened, the orchestra soared upward: searching lines contrasting well with the sudden crashing climax with which the first movement ends.
Perhaps this is the moment when Manfred meets his mysterious half sister Astarte. What is the nature of their relationship (bearing in mind Byron's unnatural relationship with his own half sister)? And, why the mountains? The second movement, marked vivace con spirito, describes a mountain spirit, one of the elementals who haunt Alpine lore. They are fairies, but also signify danger, their elusiveness defying human control. Thus the high violin melody that flies above, and away, from the main orchestral foundation.
The third movement describes the mountain folk, who carve out marginal lives in harsh conditions, yet seem happy as they dance, presumably in pure, open air festivals. They're tough folk and down to earth, while Manfred, though a hero, is rather more quixotic. Like Byron himself, maybe, a towering figure but one with dark complexes and possibly a death wish. Tolling bells suggest danger. The music descends into a stranger mood, sounds crashing against each other as if the earth itself was imploding,"fire" pouring forth from the rapid rivulets of sound. Manfred fights off the evil spirits who tempt him, but chooses to die on his own terms. What might Tchaikovsky have made of this? The finale was grand, the pace brisk, craggy peaks and descents sharply defined, dizzying figures suggesting turbulence. Not mountain breezes, but perhaps something more demonic. The organ underlined the cosmological nature of Manfred's predicament. Although the drama dissipates at the end of the symphony, textures are more refined, more esoteric, one feels that perhaps Manfred is entering a new frontier, beyond the ken of mankind. Hence details, like the horn calling the hero on, and the dizzying upwards rush towards a serene conclusion that might suggest spiritual sublimation. Chailly was better at evoking the demonic supernatural levels in the piece lurking behind the scenery, but Bychkov's account was heady stuff.
In between Taneyev and Manfred, Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto no 1 with Kiril Gerstein, a moment of relative sanity between the two doomed heroes at either end of this Prom.
Czechoslovakia was annexed by Germany, with the implicit approval of Britain. Bohuslav Martinů's Polní mše, H. 279 Field Mass (1939) was written for Czech exiles fighting with the French against the Germans. Thus the strange instrumentation, with brass and percussion employed to suggest the idea of performance in battlefield conditions. Drum rolls, marching rhythms, trumpet calls and a chorus of male voices. But also piano and harmonium and a part for baritone soloist beyond the scope of an average amateur. Fortunately, in Svatopluk Sem, we heard one of the most distinctive voices in the repertoire. Sem is a stalwart of the National Theatre in Prague, well known to British audiences for his work with Jiří Bělohlávek who transformed the way Czech music is heard in this country. Sem delivered with great authority, imbuing the words with almost biblical portent. His text is based on poetry by Jiří Mucha, who was soon to marry Vítezslava Kaprálová. (please read more about her here Her Military Sinfonietta (1937) would have worked well in this programme, though it doesn't include a part for choir.
