Mahler Symphony No.3: Sir Mark Elder, conductor | Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano | Sopranos and altos of the Hallé Choir | Hallé Children’s Choir
This was a hugely enjoyable performance, all the more special because the massed ranks of orchestral players and choristers present on stage, and the sold-out Bridgewater Hall audience packed in to hear them, were all there despite the pandemic being very far from over. The chances of some key players being knocked out by Covid must have been very high – but anyway they all managed to avoid the plague and played/sung magnificently! Hopefully I also avoided getting infected, resplendent in my FFP2 mask.
Mahler 3 is a work I’ve known for at least 55 years. I know it very well indeed – so much so that I try never hear it from a CD or radio performance, but just wait until the next live performance! Perhaps I almost know it too well – I found myself thinking during the breaks in the movements about the trajectory of the work, and realising I had taken Mahler’s programme notes (‘what the flowers tell me’ etc) for what they said, and a bit for granted, without really thinking and feeling much further about the symphony. It seems to me the movement of the work is from the darkness and melancholy of some of the first movement (which re-emerges at the one of the key climaxes of the last movement), through the ‘optimistic’, but maybe superficial, pastoral of the first three movements (and in the 1st, the jaunty military band music) to what seems to me to be the turning point of the work, the great roar of brass – calling across fathomless depths – opening up after the last of the post horn music in the third movement , and then to different forms of profundity in the last three movements, all focusing on Nietzsche’s ‘tiefe, tiefe ewigkeit’ .
I felt this was a very strong performance. One of the great things about a live performance of any Mahler symphony is that there is always so much going on in the orchestra that each time you hear something new, some instrumental undercurrent you’d not picked up on before. Sir Mark Elder’s decision to split the violins, as he normally does, gave even more clarity to some of the inner parts. The concert didn’t finish till just before 6 (ie maybe an hour and 50 mins), so this wasn’t a particularly swift performance, but certainly didn’t seem bogged down at any point. Plus points – truly world-class horn, trombone and trumpet playing; a beautiful post-horn performer (seemingly uncredited in the programme), a wonderful rendition of the Nietzsche verses by Alice Coote; the last movement was extremely well-crafted building up to a range of powerful climaxes that wave by wave increased in intensity (Alice Coote seemed to be in tears at the end, overcome by the power of the music – I think many people in the audience shared that feeling. This was the movement where the performance moved from very good to great). Things that might have gone better – I felt the speed of the 5th movement was a bit too slow, which had the advantage of the sopranos and mezzos being able to articulate their words very quickly but I think the music lost some of the vivacity it should have. I also felt that the first movement’s jaunty military band music sounded a bit too well-mannered and could have done with more vulgarity and rhythmic punch – again, been a bit faster, maybe. But these are minor cavils – it was wonderful to be hearing a huge Mahler symphony with a packed out audience.
Onwards to Bruckner 8 in Liverpool on Thursday……………….the greatest symphony, post-Beethoven, of the 19th century.
PS The 5th movement featured genuine church bells (borrowed from the Liverpool Philharmonic), apparently the first time these have been used in this work in the UK. Personally I thought they were a bit overwhelming….but definitely a splendid sound!
John's musical journey 