BBCSSO: Mahler 9
City Halls, Glasgow - 09/02/23
“Wouldn’t you just DIE without Mahler”? A youthful Maureen Lipmann delivered the immortal line in Willy Russell’s screenplay for the film version of his 1980 play, ‘Educating Rita’. Whilst not denying the satirical (of pretentiousness) context of the quotation, Scotland’s concert-going public are thankfully spared first-hand exploration of this theory. It is a rare concert season that is Mahler-less and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra have always more than pulled their weight in this regard. Nonetheless, on the night of Thursday 9th February in Glasgow’s City Halls, they went above and beyond, bringing back their celebrated Conductor Emeritus, Sir Donald Runnicles, to lead them in the Ninth Symphony.
Notwithstanding the comprehensive publicity, the compelling tagline “Emotional, Gripping, Universal”, the undiminished Runnicles fanbase and the army of Mahlerians never likely to miss an outing for any of the 10-ish symphonies, I was astonished to find the City Halls filled to capacity and alive with that anticipatory buzz that is characteristic of a Glasgow audience. The first of three performances (the others following in Aberdeen and Edinburgh) was introduced by Kate Molleson and broadcast live on Radio 3. It will be accessible online on BBC Music for the next four weeks.
Mahler’s last completed numbered symphony, composed when he was dying of an incurable heart condition, is a monumental work. It typically lasts between 80 and 90 minutes, comprehensively exploring the composer’s deepest personal feelings about mortality, yet simultaneously reaching out beyond the limitations of his own finite existence to touch all mankind, all existence and the cosmos. It is not a piece for those phobic of self-indulgence, but then no such person could be a true Mahlerian. The music is at times rueful, valedictory, tender, angry, playful, grotesque, self-mocking, defiant and, in the end, settles on peaceful resignation. The conductor must be present to every player shaping every nuance of the music, yet simultaneously seeing the whole monumental structure at once as if from a great height. It takes a special conductor and a special relationship between conductor and orchestra.
Many dedicated Mahlerians who are also fans of the BBCSSO will be aware of the 2014 Proms performance given by the BBCSSO under Runnicles and issued on CD two years later by the BBC Music Magazine. It is the stuff of legend. Was the legend sustained on Thursday? It most definitely was, not merely sustained but surpassed.
The huge first movement, growing from a hesitant germ to a conflicted impassioned song of tender farewell tempered with regret, drew playing of the utmost virtuosity from the orchestra. The 3/4 time second movement, morphing between parodic minuet, grotesque Ländler and galumphing waltz, was as characterful as I have heard. The Rondo-Burleske, ebullient and martial, was blisteringly defiant and I have no hesitation in describing it as the best live reading I have ever heard – and indeed even the equal of my favourite recordings. A musical idea that always reminds me of the first phrase of White Christmas, makes a peremptory appearance in a dreamlike sequence in the middle of the movement. The finale, to my ears Mahler’s most Brucknerian movement, especially in the string writing, was heartrending in its pathos, fashioned around that same idea. The closing bars, where Mahler seems to cling to the last glimmer of life and delays the final cadence as if it might be prolonged for eternity, were breathtakingly beautiful. As the music faded out, there was absolute silence in the auditorium for nigh on half a minute. The applause, when it came, was ecstatic and tumultuous.
This was a fabulous concert. I expect it will be remembered by all present for the rest of their lives.