Mahler Symphony No. 5

City Halls, Glasgow, 26/09/24

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ryan Wigglesworth (conductor), Claire Booth (soprano)

Link:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ecc4mb

Just a year ago, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-24 season opened with Mahler’s fey Fourth Symphony, so the promise of their Chief Conductor and confirmed Mahlerian, Ryan Wigglesworth’s, take on the epic Fifth to open the 2024-25 City Halls Thursday-night season was the hot ticket of 26th September.  The concert opened with a world premiere of a BBC commission, Helen Grime’s ‘FOLK’, an exploration of the world of Scottish, Irish and Manx folklore, inspired by Zoe Gilbert’s novel of the same name, for soprano and orchestra, with Claire Booth as soloist.  The themed taglines of the new season’s programmes all start with “Imagine ...”, with the overarching season slogan, “Imagine 80 world-class musicians at the top of their game” eliciting no challenge or argument from this reviewer, save the observation that with the thrill of live performance, no imagination is necessary – the excellence is manifested in real time. The tagline of the season opener was “Imagine the most rapturous love-letter ever written without words.  From tragedy to triumph”, a reference to the tender Adagietto 4th movement of the Mahler, addressed to Alma Schindler, whom he married while working on the symphony, as well as the underlying psychic narrative of the work.

This has been a good year for outings of Helen Grime’s music in her native Scotland, with the UK premiere of the 2021 settings for soprano, violin solo and strings ‘It Will Be Spring Soon’ performed by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Pekka Kuusisto and Ruby Hughes in March, and the 2008 ‘The Brook Sings Loud’ performed by the Leonore Piano Trio in the Edinburgh International Festival.  Our programme, which was recorded for broadcast on Radio 3 on 8th October, was introduced as usual by presenter Kate Molleson, but with the added dimension of a short interview with the composer.  The concert was very well attended, with the expectant ’Glasgow buzz’ very much in evidence.

It was soprano Claire Booth who first introduced Helen Grime to Zoe Gilbert’s novel, igniting the creative collaborative impulse that became a cycle of four songs, the libretto fashioned from the stories into four poems by the novelist, the vital and evocative music produced by the composer, the equally vital and compelling realisation drawing on the unique vocal skillset of the singer.  The double entendre of the first song, ‘Prick Song’, evokes the mythical ‘Gorse Mother’, directing unseen the dangerous games of seduction played by young couples amid the burning prickly gorse. The music was demonically driven and rhythmic with references to reels and ceilidh bands and a super viola solo from Andrew Berridge.  In ‘Fishskin, Hareskin’, a young mother rebels against the suppression of her sense of self as she is forced to work as a fishwife and abandon her calling as a hare breeder, yet still boldly asserts her true identity.  ‘Water Bull Bride’ evokes the Manx myth of a water bull dragging maidens to a watery grave, but the music is dreamy, surreal and seductive, timbrally rich with liquid sounds from bowed vibraphone, clarinet and double bass descending glissandi, among other effects.  The conversation between the soprano and various string and wind soloists was magical, as the young woman appeared to be a very willing ‘victim’. In the final song, ‘Long Have I Lain Beside the Water’, the myth of ‘singing bones’ reproaching a murderous jealous sister was evoked with sepulchral, equally timbrally rich music from tubular bells, trumpet foreshadowing the opening of the Mahler and reminding me also of Panufnik’s ‘Sinfonia Sacra’, and celeste.  The conversation between soprano and the solo violin of guest leader Ania Safonova was as compelling as it was breathtaking.  ‘FOLK’ is a beautifully crafted piece and it received a superbly committed premiere, enthusiastically received by a Glasgow audience that knew it had experienced something special.  Singer, composer and librettist embraced as the applause thundered.  Unforgettable.  Catch it on Radio 3 and BBC Sounds from 8th October.  I, for one, shall be on the lookout for more opportunities to catch Claire Booth live – she is a force of nature.

Mark O’ Keefe’s trumpet launched the funereal first movement of the Mahler and from the off it was clear that the elements that make for a great Mahler performance were in place. A conductor who has a vision of the piece that reconciles its wholeness and unity with the mercurial contradictions of Mahler’s obsessive histrionics? – that is Ryan Wigglesworth.  A partnership and deep mutual trust and affection between conductor and orchestra that allows that vision to be realised? – this is the start of a third season for that partnership and it remains solid and artistically fruitful.  A band of music-makers who relish the opportunity to deliver that performance? – absolutely, “80 world-class musicians at the top of their game”.  The mortality-obsessed first movement is not without its moments of wistful Gemütlichkeit and these too were allowed to speak.  The stormy episodic second movement dramatises a life-and-death struggle with characterful klezmer and schmaltzy elements opposed by fatalistic gloomy demons. A first appearance of a brass chorale that seems to promise salvation crumbles to the gloom. Duality also pervades the Scherzo, playful rustic waltz vying for attention with a more disruptive Ländler, moments of genteel elegance swept aside by boorish vulgarity.  In this movement, as so often before, the 6+1 BBCSSO horns shone. Helen Thomson’s harp and the string section delivered an exquisite Adagietto, Ryan Wigglesworth’s shaping of the tenuto in the phrasing perfectly judged and breathtakingly beautiful.  The cheerful playful rustic charm of the opening of the Rondo-Finale gives way to a celebratory rush of explosive creativity.  When people describe the finale of Shostakovich 4 as ‘Mahlerian’, I always assume that they are likening its central section, where theme after theme tumbles in and out of our attention, with the finale of Mahler 5, and I agree; the music seems to be leading to the emergence of a single main theme and there just isn’t one.  It isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, and indeed a handful of punters left halfway through the movement, thereby missing the triumphant radiant reappearance of the brass chorale at the end.  I, who adore both works, felt sad for them for all of 10 seconds, before being swept up in the optimism of the music. The rest of the Glasgow audience would appear to have agreed: the applause was tumultuous.

A super season-opener, boding well for the goodies to come. 

Photo Credit: BBC/Martin Shields