Los Angeles Philharmonic. Zubin Mehta, conductor. March 4, 2023.

Walt Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CA.  Orchestra East (Seat B53, $200).

Waiting for the concertmaster and the conductor to appear.

Program

Symphony No. 3 (1895-96) by Mahler (1860-1911).

Artists

Gerhild Romberger, alto

Women of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Grant Gershon, director; Jenny Wong, associate director

Los Angeles Children's Chorus.  Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, director

I couldn't find the program notes on line, reading it in advance would have added to my appreciation of the performance.

I was on a weekend trip to the area, and took the chance to visit the "new" Walt Disney Hall.  I lived in the area for about a year in 2002, at that time LA Phil had their concerts at Dorothy Chandler.  Construction of Disney Hall was ongoing while I visited LA Phil and LA Opera, but I don't remember seeing it.  It opened around 2003, so it has been around for 20 years.

Mahler's third symphony is his longest, I don't know what symphonies are longer than that.  And I am sure this was my first encounter with the symphony (either in concert or as a recording).  It has six movements, with Part I consisting of the first movement, and Part II the rest.  Evidently Mahler had some scenes in mind when he wrote the symphony, and referred to them by their titles in his various correspondences, but withdrew the description when the symphony was published.  My take, from today's concert, is that the titles weren't necessary.  However, the images the titles conjure up did provide an interesting backdrop as I listened to the performance.  In my case, the description often did not match with what I was hearing.

First, a list of the movements as listed in the Performances magazine, with the "titles" copied from Wikipedia.  There are different views as to whether the last movement represents Mahler's vision of heaven instead.

Part I

Kraftig: Entschiede (Vigorous; Decisive).  "Pan Awakes Summer Marches In"

Part II

Tempo di Menuetto: Sehr massig (Very moderate).  "What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me"

Comodo; Scherzando: Ohne Hast (Without haste).  "What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me"

Sehr langsam (Very slow); Misterioso.  "What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me"

Lustig in Tempo und keck im Ausdruck (Lively in tempo and jaunty in expression). "What the Man Tells Me"

Langsam; Ruhevoll; Empfunden (Slow; Peaceful; With feeling).  "What Love Tells Me"

The notes in the Performances Magazine contains some interesting background on how the symphony got put together, and descriptions of each of the movements.  I will excerpt a few points below, albeit incomplete - otherwise I might just as well take pictures of the notes.

Mahler first started with poems in the collection "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" (The Youth's Magic Horn), setting "Das himmlische Leben" (The Heavenly Life) into song in 1892, with the idea of using it as the finale in the symphony.  He abandoned the idea only after completing the rest of the symphony, and used it in his fourth symphony instead.  The words in the fourth movement are from Zarathustra's song "O Mensch" from Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra."  Together they paint a picture of a world filled with a pain assuaged only by death, and a longing fulfilled only by heavenly paradise.  [One wonders how much of that remains after "Das himmlische Leben" is taken out, and should one care?]  In any case, Mahler seemed to be of the opinion that "'symphony' means to me building a world with all the resources of the available techniques" and "the symphony must be like the world.  It must embrace everything."  [No idle strolling in the meadow by a brook for him, even though that's how I often describe his music.]

For an epic work we need epic musicians.  I counted (to the best of my ability) 18 first violins, 14 second violins, 11 violas, 10 cellos, 9 double basses, 2 harps, 9 horns, 4 flutes (and two of them also played the piccolo), 5 clarinets, 4 oboes, 4 trumpets. 4 trombones, 1 tuba, 2 sets of timpani, and an additional 4 percussion players on a variety of instruments.  Here are excerpts from the notes that differ or add to what I wrote: 4 flutes (all=piccolo), 4 oboes (4th=English Horn), 4 clarinets (3rd=bass clarinet, 4th=E-flat clarinet); 4 bassoons (4th=contrabassoon; I forgot to jot this down); 8 horns (not 9), 4 trumpets, posthorn (offstage); percussion (bass drum, chimes, cymbals, glockenspiel, rute, snare drum, suspended cymbals, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle).  Totaling to about 100 musicians.  The children's and women's choruses had about 40 members each.  Altogether about 180 people on stage.

The piece was captivating from the start.  The first movement, described as a march, lasted 60 minutes.  I was impressed with the clarity of the sound the orchestra produced.  What was surprising was sometimes I could hear the individual instruments in a section (surprisingly it's often the viola, which I generally have problems picking out).  I don't remember the LA Philharmonic from 20 years ago, but I can't imagine the clarity and precision then could compare with what I heard today.  The concert hall has a lot to do with it, but I am also sure the ensemble has improved a lot.  The last part of the movement evoked for me the immolation scene from Wagner's Gotterdammerung.  Mahler often used solo instruments and small ensembles in this symphony, and they all worked out very well.  Towards the end of the symphony they did sound a bit weaker.  It was 100 minutes of music and concentration, after all.

The symphony began with a melody that's modified from Brahms's first symphony (4th movement, at about the 5 minute mark).  I referenced Wagner's immolation scene earlier.  The knowledgeable listener probably can find many other instances in this work.

The third movement, a forest scene, is described as a "transition from daylight to darkness ... to the depth of night, glowing in shimmering moonlight."  I don't think so: that's not how I would use to describe this movement.  The passage by the offstage fugelhorn (or a posthorn? not that I know the difference) was in a major key, but somehow tinged with sadness.

In the fourth movement the alto sang the words by Nietzsche.  The words were sad: "... What says the deep midnight?  'I slept, I slept ... pain says: pass away! But all joy seeks eternity - seeks deep, deep eternity!"  The movement was relatively short and flowed directly (attacca) into the fifth where the choruses joined in.  The words from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" end with "The heavenly joy is a blessed city, the heavenly joy that has no end!  The heavenly joy was granted to Peter through Jesus, and to all mankind for eternal bliss."

At the end of the performance Mehta (pretend-)collapsed.  The applause was deservedly thunderous.

Our last encounter with Mehta was last summer, he conducted Turandot at the Berlin State Theater.  We didn't get to see the orchestra pit.  Before that was January 2012 when he conducted the New York Phil in a performance of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony.  I remember liking that very much. I am quite sure I am even more appreciative of the performance tonight.  He walked with the aid of a cane, and sat during the performance.  He also conducted from memory.

Alto Romberger sang with a silken voice that was well-suited for the occasion.  The choruses added some "meaning" to the music, added some insight into Mahler's thinking.  Frankly I haven't studied Mahler's worldview or philosophical leanings, so don't know how this work reflects his outlook on life.

Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall.

With so many percussion instruments, sound levels got dangerously high at times.  This was the level at around 9:30 pm (I took this screen shot after I returned to NJ).

At the conclusion of the performance.  The people in red vests are from the Children's Chorus.  I didn't have the presence of mind to include people from the LA Master Chorale, seated to the left.

Well, I took a short video clip of the curtain call, and did capture the choruses.  (This was added on 3/30/2023).

Mehta had to take slow and deliberate steps, with the aid of a cane.  One can imagine for 100 minutes he was immersed in another world.

I had bought tickets to the New Jersey Symphony performing the same piece this weekend, and gave the tickets away.  The one report I got back was the first movement was a bit chaotic.  Perhaps NJ Symphony is not quite up to that yet, or perhaps the acoustics at NJPAC aren't as good.  I am glad they decided to tackle it, for the third time in their 100 year history.  One reviewer was very impressed with how they did, and suggested that this be the Symphony's calling card to a Carnegie Hall event.

Tickets for LA Phil concerts seem to be slightly cheaper than those for NY Phil.  The total price I noted above included a $21 fee, the ticket itself was "only" $179.  One bargain in this exercise: parking cost only $10, in the basement of the hall.  It was $7 twenty years ago.

One concern was driving in the evening in the downtown area, it turned out to be okay.  On my way back to the hotel an overturned car caused some delay.  I tried to walk around the block, and must say the back side (Hope Street) wasn't one I would want to linger.

As close to a perfect musical evening as one can hope to get.