classical
The Orchestra's Mahler
Myung Whun Chung conductor, Dmitri Hvorostovsky soloist, Academy of Music, Dec. 10.
An artistic endurance marathon is always a tricky business.
In an inspired performance of Bach's St. Matthew's Passion, the listener never pauses to consider how long the work is. In nearly all of Mahler, for all of its brilliance, such thoughts inevitably arise.
Mahler's Fifth Symphony is comprised of five movements grouped into three sections. Part Two consists solely of an ingenious Scherzo. Part Three begins with the great Adagietto, made famous by the film Death in Venice. It is followed by a splendidly exuberant Finale.
The problem with this symphony lies in Part One, which contains some of Mahler's most uninspired music. The two loud, manic movements that run for more than 30 minutes are filled with moments of genius, but the overall effect is martial "oom-pah-pah" music whipped up to an hysteria bordering on the ludicrous.
At the Philadelphia Orchestra performance of the work, guest conductor Myung Whun Chung, who kept the musicians at peak concentration for all of the mayhem, leaned on the podium rail with shoulders drooped at the conclusion of Part One, visibly exhausted.
It is a tribute to our wonderful orchestra and the skills of Chung that the high energy level was maintained to the end. But there was a lapse of concentration for the Adagietto, which should be orgasmic. In this performance, it was merely very beautiful. The next movement was played brilliantly, so the problem was not physical.
The first half of the concert consisted of a youthful work of Mahler that is, uncharacteristically, concise and beautifully balanced. Songs of a Wayfarer is a sublime contribution to the classical lieder repertoire, and the Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky sang the four songs of forlorn love in a thoughtful, intimate manner that belied the big-orchestra arrangement, pointing toward the smaller scale of the traditional song.
Hvorostovsky betrayed some technical lapses in his performance, notably several tentative entrances, but the style and intelligence of his singing of the text was genuinely moving. Chung's accompaniment was extraordinarily deferential to the conception of the singer, and the playing of the orchestra was at once delicate and glowing.
— Peter Burwasser
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December 1996 Performance Diary