Photo, Chris Christodoulou
Thursday, August 10, 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London
I’ll now never know, but my gut-feeling was that Sir Andrew Davis conducting Mahler’s Tenth Symphony (left unfinished at the composer’s death and made performable by Deryck Cooke – Davis’s choice of version from the several now available) would have been special indeed. Sadly he was indisposed, but how fortunate that Sakari Oramo was able to replace him and bring Mahler’s Seventh, also not one of his Symphonies that is overplayed.
Unchanged was the first half, Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, his final completed work, given its premiere posthumously in 1936 by Louis Krasner, Hermann Scherchen conducting (coupled with Mahler Ten this was originally an ‘endgame’ Prom). Leila Josefowicz gave a reading of this work dedicated “to the memory of an angel”, Manon Gropius, daughter of Walter and Alma, dead aged eighteen, that was about quick-change emotions, confiding whispers and explosive attack, a scorching bow on her violin’s strings – the serene opening had been deceiving – and she was backed by a fully conversant Oramo and BBCSO as to her chameleon, totally immersed approach and they regarding their supporting complexities, details delineated, the introduction of a Bach chorale a moment of transcendence and acceptance, plangently developed to the Concerto’s ethereal conclusion. For an encore it had to be further Bach, a very expressive Largo from the C-major Sonata (BWV1005).
(With James Ehnes as soloist, Sir Andrew has recorded Berg’s Violin Concerto for Chandos, https://www.colinscolumn.com/sir-andrew-davis-and-the-bbc-symphony-orchestra-record-alban-berg-including-the-violin-concerto-with-james-ehnes-for-chandos/. I wonder if Chandos had plans to record the Mahler.)
Mahler’s five-movement Seventh, music mostly of the night, found Oramo expansively traversing this great, complex and ambiguous Symphony, the first movement’s militaristic swagger, and mysterious romance growing to rapture, enjoying coherence and deliberation, yet also flexibility, initiated by the oars-in-water introduction, and a well-taken tenor horn solo by Peter Moore (Martin Owen led the French variety), with colours and dynamics vividly contrasted and savoured, the coda hard-won. The first ‘Nachtmusik’ movement was beguilingly detailed and pointed, interest sustained through a galaxy of incidents, picturesque and poetic, the second one a dusky serenade warmly wooing, guitar and mandolin in the mix to suggest that love is wafting in the gentle breeze, mostly languorous, some palpitations, with, in between, the macabre Scherzo flitting by, shadows and spectres, bizarre effects heightened, discombobulating. And to a timpani salvo as a wake-up call, the Finale, a bright new day, light out of darkness, and festivities galore, with Wagner, Schumann and Lehár as possible guests – teasing allusions – Oramo spiriting and nudging the music along to a resplendent cowbell-festooned conclusion.
With the Proms and Albert Hall connection I was reminded at times of the fantastic M7 that Pierre Boulez conducted with this Orchestra on September 12, 1977 (if not quite emulated in his later Cleveland/DG recording), Boulez also introducing a new (longer) version of his Rituel in memoriam Maderna. Like the Frenchman, Oramo led a Mahler Seven in which there was nothing ‘easy’ or glib. He has Mahler Three on August 19.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p7w1
Bravo! This was not only a wonderfully illuminating account of what many consider to be Mahler’s most challenging symphony, but a really fine example of Radio Three music presentation, with Martin Handley’s commentary as exemplary as ever and an intelligent interval conversation truly worth hearing.
Oramo certainly got the mania of the finale. If such exists. Well it does for me.
How much rehearsal was available?
It all seemed under control from a man certain of how this music should go. So well done Sakari a hero of the night, as is Mahler in his No 7.
My personal favourite of all the Mahler Symphonies, having learned it 69 years ago from Hermann Scherchen’s Nixa LPs (a flawed performance in some ways, but the character was there). A unique (possibly the first) example of genuine progressive tonality, the work is demonstrably in C major (‘C major, my dear, in Mahler? – we cannot possibly have that, can we?’) which is why I suppose Boulez didn’t get it. A shatteringly original masterpiece – and the orchestration!!
Bob, Boulez certainly got M7 on September 12, 1977.
Whatever are the merits of tonight’s soloist performance would have been completely lost to 80% of this hall’s awful acoustics.
I tried with the Walton concerto, a far more loud experience than this majestic though intimate work by the wonderful Alban Berg. It failed completely.
Listening to the broadcast to any Proms Violin Concerto is the only way to appreciate the qualities of the soloist.
In the hall it is a waste of time.
By the way the merits of our soloist were manifold on air.
@Edward Clark: I was in the hall (stalls row 6, almost centrally facing the orchestra) and you are right. I could see the soloist making Herculean efforts to project the sound, but she and the whole violin section sounded distant, as if the instruments were stuffed with cotton wool. It was very odd because the winds, percussion and cellos sounded clear and were not overwhelming the violins and soloist with volume, in fact I thought they played delicately and brought out themes clearly. I could barely hear the opening violin violin arpeggio figure, and the climax of part 2, which is a cataclysm, seemed to come and go without much fuss.
As I write this I am hearing it again on BBC Sounds and the balance is much better.
I have to say that personally I didn’t share the positivity of this review. I thought the Berg was played beautifully although as Ian says above, the acoustic did not favour the plangency of the violin. I have yet to find the best place to sit in this Hall, but in the stalls stage right is not it. But it is a wonderful piece, and the playing was passionate and convincing.
I was genuinely gutted by the cancellation of the rather wonderful Mahler 10, and perhaps therefore wasn’t in the best place to listen to the 7th, possibly one of his poorest symphonies. Maybe it is me, but I’m baffled when people argue it is one of his best. It is really is a hot mess of a piece, with bleeding chunks of past works interposed with rapid cuts, changes in tempo, wearying repetitions and overlong recapitulations. The second and third movements were played beautifully however, and the mandolin shined in the fourth movement, despite the acoustic. But the 1st and 5th movements were just lost. I just didn’t feel it.
Maybe I should listen to the broadcast for more clarity. But now I’ve heard the 7th played live. I doubt I’ll sit through it again by choice, pretty much any other Mahler symphony would have gone down better for me. I must be missing something. Give me the 9th every time.