Kahchun Wong conductor, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha soprano, Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano, Hallé Choir, Hallé Youth Choir: Mahler Symphony No.2, ‘Resurrection’
I first heard Mahler 2 live in 1968, with Haitink, and have been to many fine performances since – it’s a work that seems to bring out the best in performers and, really, I can say hand on heart I’ve never heard an indifferent performance. It brings out the audiences too, as a ‘big’ occasion, and the Bridgewater Hall (unusually) was completely sold out for this concert. I went to a pre-concert talk and, when the speaker asked how many people either didn’t know the work or had never heard it live before, a surprisingly large number of people put up their hands. That was gratifying to see and I don’t think the audience – familiar or unfamiliar with the work – would have been disappointed in what they heard this evening– this was another extremely fine performance of Mahler 2. Indeed I know they weren’t, as, at the end, with one accord, everyone rose to their feet and started cheering…….This is pretty unusual for the Bridgewater Hall where normally a more phlegmatic approach prevails. The Halle’s Facebook page overflowed with enthusiastic comments the following morning.
One thing that’s becoming clear about Kahchun Wong as a conductor is his interest in shaping orchestral seating to fit the sound-world of each work. Here, as they were in Mahler 1 – but not Bruckner 9 – the violins were split. The harp was given a very prominent position centre-stage unusually. Double basses were over to the side – I think in the Mahler 1 they were at the centre in the rear.
As with the Bruckner 9 Wong conducted in October, there was an inclination in his performance towards broad tempi where justified- e.g in the resplendent brass chorales of the finale and the final choral peroration (which was glorious) as well as also the second and third movements (in Urlicht he was, relatively speaking, brisk). Although it is a bit difficult to separate out work that the conductor has done with the orchestra from the acoustic properties of the hall, what was also noticeable was the clarity of the orchestral sound – the split violins and the prominent position of the harp all emphasised this clarity, but in general I heard numerous details I hadn’t heard before such that, particularly in the second movement, the sound had a polyphonic element at times; you heard two different strands of melody occupying the same space with more clarity than you sometimes do.
The orchestra and Mr Wong built up very effectively to the big climaxes – things weren’t over-driven or over- emphasised too early. The climax of revulsion towards the end of the third movement and the climax after all the marching of the dead in the last movement were particularly finely done. Tempi were flexible- parts of the first movement were quite fast, the second was deliciously relaxed and, as mentioned already, slowish. I have to say I got a bit nervous (page 35 of my blog recounts what happened in late May 2019 at the last Halle rendition of Mahler 2) as the chorus surged towards the final full shout of ‘Auferstehn’ where there is a sudden diminuendo and the performance in 2019 collapsed for maybe 3-4 seconds, but Wong and the choral forces handled it magnificently – Wong’s hand shot out to the sopranos telling them exactly what to do.
Throughout the Halle sounded wonderful – no glitches, sweet-sounding strings, some excellent trumpet and flute-playing….The final orchestral blaze with splendidly crashing gongs and the RLPO’s ‘Forever Bells’ was as good as I’ve ever heard. Though the choral forces don’t have much time singing, what they do sing has to be utterly together and overwhelming – which it was . Neither of the two distinguished soloists sounded quite ethereal enough in the finale but were perfectly satisfactory
There was a forest of microphones on stage – it looked like either they were being used to record the performance by the BBC or the Halle were planning to issue a recording of the performance. Either way, I’d love to hear it again
John's musical journey 