Final tuning before the start of Mahler 3rd. Time stamp 7:01 pm. Chorus members seated above the orchestra.
Program
Symphony No. 3 in D minor (1893-96) by Mahler (1860-1911).
Artists
Ryan Bancroft conductor
Beth Taylor mezzo-soprano
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Members of the Orchestre National de Bretagne
CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) Children's Chorus
CBSO Youth Chorus
BBC National Chorus of Wales (upper voice) Adrian Partington chorus-master
If there was any light-heartedness in yesterday's program, today's program was all-business. It takes a lot to put together a Mahler symphony, especially the Third, his longest, and probably the longest in the entire genre. And I must say this ensemble pulled the piece off, mostly brilliantly at that.
My last (and only) encounter with the piece was in March 2023, Zubin Mehta conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I described that as a near-perfect evening.
How the first movement was performed was a bit concerning. It didn't feel long (lasted about 30 minutes), which was a good sign. However, while the orchestra's individual sections played well, I didn't think the movement as a whole had a lot of coherence or direction to it. It was more like after this section played these lines then another section's played theirs. Even though Mahler withdrew the "headings" of the individual movements, the title "Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In" has stuck with the listening audience, and except for the last arousing passage, the case cannot be fully made.
Things greatly improved from that point on. The Program insists even though Mahler withdrew the "plot" of the symphony in later performances, we can still use those headings a guide to appreciate the music. And that may explain why Mahler used Nietzsche in the fourth movement ("what night tells me"); in this movement "the subject is mankind's struggle to make sense of the world, its joy and its grief, as expressed enigmatically in Nietzsche's verses." Indeed the middle movements (2 through 5) were all delivering some kind of message or statement, even though without the help of the headings they are probably difficult to elicit specifically.
Some sort of horn (posthorn?) was played from the back of the hall, which added a spatial dimension to the music. The entire ensemble consisted of five different organizations. The mezzo-soprano had only a brief appearance (well, brief is relative), but brought out the wistfulness in the fourth movement, and sang the unidentified disciple's conversation with Jesus at the last supper. (The lyrics did mention Peter, so he could be the disciple in question.) Mahler's original heading for this last movement was "What God tells me."
Our seats were considerably cheaper than those from last night, yet the acoustics was a lot better. While the ensemble didn't get too loud (unlike my experience at Disney Hall), the music came across clearly. I do not know how often the five organizations work together, but I was impressed by how "together" everything sounded.
My first photo at the end of the concert was 8:40 pm (so symphony duration was close to 100 minutes, listed as 96 min in Program). Beth Taylor (mezzo-soprano) and Ryan Bancroft on the left. The other two gentlemen probably from the other ensembles.
This blog entry was completed on Aug 21, a full ten days after the event itself. I didn't have the time (more likely the concentration) to write up the last five concerts right afterwards, and thus could only record the simplest (or shallowest) of the observations I made. Overall, however, there is no doubt that we enjoyed the concert as musical events than simply "events." Should the opportunity arise, we would definitely do something similar.
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