DSO & Herbert Blomstedt rehearsing Mahler Nine
Sunday, May 10, 2026
Orchestra Hall, Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, Woodward Avenue, Detroit, Michigan
Herbert Blomstedt last conducted the Detroit Symphony during 1985, so this return was a surprise announcement given the indefatigable maestro’s long-established relationships with, among others, orchestras in Bamberg, Berlin, Boston, Dresden, Leipzig, London (Philharmonia: Bruckner Five in the coming season) and Tokyo (NHK). Although Blomstedt is especially associated with Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Sibelius, and less so with Mahler, the Ninth Symphony is being programmed with increasing regularity by the nonagenarian; very soon he is scheduled to conduct it in San Francisco thrice (where he was music director, a tenure documented by numerous Decca recordings, including Sibelius’s Seven Symphonies, Mahler’s polar opposite in terms of symphonic thinking) and then twice with Swedish Radio (the first, on May 29, will be broadcast live). Blomstedt has recorded the Ninth in Bamberg for Accentus.
Requiring help to reach the front-centre of the stage, and seated once there, no allowance need be made for Blomstedt leading whatever the repertoire and ensemble might be. Of course, four decades later, he has had no continuous working relationship with the DSO (and it’s probable that there are no current members who played for him in 1985), so except for a few days of rehearsal and last night’s concert, this visit is not far from being a DSO debut for the veteran musician.
This second (Sunday-afternoon, 3 p.m.) performance of Mahler Nine fused orchestra and conductor into a compelling account, the expansive first movement immediately suggested a funereal tread, yet it was a musical progression that allowed few if any contrasts of tempos and with it presented fewer of Mahler’s emotional entanglements; rather this was an analysis of a musical journey – with vivid projection of fortissimos, played heroically, especially given Blomstedt’s unmasking of the printed page, whatever subtexts there may be left to the recipient, this broad exposure a considerable change of approach (to the recording and a more-recent Finnish Radio rendition) in terms of ‘meaning’, very appealing and gripping as a structured distillation of a soulful pilgrimage, maybe that of Life itself perfected into music; yet, perhaps this opening Andante comodo, lasting thirty-four minutes (not unprecedented, Maazel & Philharmonia thirty-six), was too complete (if confirming it as one of Mahler’s greatest achievements), such singularity leaving little room for the three movements that follow … or so I thought, for the successor had all the necessary divergences and flexibility required as dance is set upon dance, and interruptions and reflections abound, the DSO sonically rough-hewn. With a tempo ideally marrying stealth and articulacy, the stalking rhythms of the ‘Rondo-Burleske’ were laid bare, as were the myriad details of scoring, with the trumpet-led (Hunter Eberly) beatific middle section suggestive of a rainbow, the resuming of the first section less a ride to the abyss than a stoical signing off, which leaves the slow Finale that veers between this world and the next and transcends to a gradual evaporation to nothingness, silence (even so a Tenth Symphony was on Mahler’s desk), with wonderfully sonorous and sensitive strings matching every demand and dynamic (Kimberly Kaloyanides Kennedy, concertmaster), Blomstedt’s approach indisputably ‘right’ in every particular for twenty-eight minutes. I was holding my breath. Fortunately, fools didn’t rush in and clap too soon.
Blomstedt might these days be minimal in his gestures but they mean much, as this ninety-five-minute, increasingly inevitable performance made clear – to the ears.
From Amanda Blaikie, DSO flute…
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYOKAuCFplO
Lorin Maazel…