The Mahler Players: Mahler Symphony No 6
Strathpeffer Pavilion - 17/09/23
Tomas Leakey, conductor | Arranged by Robert Farmer
The body of Mahlerian work arranged for chamber forces and performed successfully by the Mahler Players in their now traditional Strathpeffer and Inverness concerts continues to grow. This rendition of Mahler’s driving and life haunted Sixth symphony, while not being completely without flaw, was rich in colour and tone and supremely well executed overall.
Life haunted? Arranger Robert Farmer, who must take considerable credit for the feat of reducing a symphony written for a 100 musicians down to one for 36, without undue loss of delicacy or power in the more constrained spaces in which the Mahler Players ply their trade, cautions in his program notes about not reading too much into any supposed programmatic references from the historical literature on the Sixth, but to let the music speak to each and every individual on its – and their- own level. I attended with someone who had little familiarity with the music, other than its use in Ken Russell’s 70’s biopic of the composer.
It’s a testimony to the way this titanic piece of great contrasts, both over and within movements, was handled that she thoroughly enjoyed the musical experience. And when ‘what it was about’ came up in conversation afterwards, she said “all this stuff happens in life, and then you die.”
Spot on, thought I.
The powerful tympani motifs in the opening movements that herald inevitability, and ultimately death, are surely the pivotal element of Mahler’s structure in this symphony. “Death closes all,” as Tennyson had written – but this is not a ‘doom laden’ or ‘tragic’ piece. From the first imitations of mortality to the final breath and silence, this is much more a symphony that is about the joys, tragedies, rushes, roars, and quiet meditations of life, which the finality of death only sharpens and intensifies.
From the opening pulsing theme led by the strings, to – literally – the final hammer blow, pacing and phrasing were fairly spot on. The percussion group delivered and can hold their heads high. The strings were excellent throughout, and at times exceeded the excellent and transported us to the sublime. Woodwind haunted and soared in the quiet patches when it needed to, and under the direction of conductor Tomas Leakey the music swept us up ‘pell mell’ in moments, and at other times whispered, dream like in some imaginary Alpine intimacy.
Conceptually, it felt true to this reviewer’s conception of Mahler’s unknown intent, at least.
Notably, while the power passages worked well for the most part, it was in the quiet, melodic passages that this performance really shone, creating at least a couple of ‘hair standing up on the back of the neck’ moments. The slow movement was played – correctly, of course - after the first and was quite beautiful.
In comparison to the overall quality of the performance of this very long, focused and difficult piece of work, any criticisms are minor. There were a few moments in the sprawling finale when woodwind and brass seemed a little hesitant. There were a few moments when the brass wasn’t as fusion bright as the emotional logic of the piece required. And the cow bells could have been more prominent.
But to overemphasise these points would be pernickety. Reducing a big symphony originally written for large orchestra to something chamber-sized that still has emotional impact, musical integrity and the right amount of woof is problematic, but Tomas Leakey and his team of gallus gals and guys have managed it now on a number of occasions.
What they do is culturally important, not just for the Highlands but for the public performance of this type of music in a wider context, proving beyond peradventure that ‘big’ music of the repertoire can be done well by smaller, local forces
I have no idea whether it may be on the horizon any time soon, but I would love to hear a recorded Mahler cycle from this group with this sort of arrangement.