Barbican Hall
Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano)
Trinity Boys Choir (chorus master: David Swinson)
BBC Symphony Chorus (chorus master: Stephen Jackson)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sakari Oramo (conductor)
No orchestra benefits from the
dreadful acoustic of the Royal Albert Hall; given the frequency of its Proms
performances, no orchestra therefore suffers so much from that acoustic as the
BBC Symphony Orchestra. In a work of the scale of Mahler’s Third Symphony, the
Barbican might seem to offer the opposite problem. There were times when the
hall did feel a little on the small side, the acoustic becoming unduly
congested, but for the most part, this performance from the BBC SO and Sakari
Oramo convinced, both on its own terms and those of the hall.
There was certainly a good
sense even at the very opening of the first movement of how Mahler prolongs,
twists, transforms phrases to afford motivic and other development over its
great span. (One can perhaps overemphasise the length of the work: great by
symphonic standards, true, but hardly by those of Wagner, to whom Mahler
perhaps owes most of all.) The dryness of the acoustic permitted us to hear a
good deal of instrumental detail, not least the notes in downward glissandi,
and in general militated against a soft-centred, generic ‘late Romanticism’ which
tends to sentimentalise Mahler and assimilate him to quite the wrong sort of
imagined Vienna. I could, for instance, imagine the sound having elicited an
admiring nod from Boulez.
Echoes of the Second Symphony and presentiments of what was to come (‘O Mensch!’
in particular) were readily apparent. What to make of them? Perhaps that was
for us to decide. For the performance of the marching music was well judged in
its ambiguity. ‘false optimism’ would be too pat; there was something here perhaps
beyond conventional meaning, or at least verbal meaning. Later, of course, the
material took a considerably darker turn and properly chilled, its roots in
imagined village revelries and urban militarism notwithstanding. ‘Politics
in a new key?’ Perhaps. Aspirant musical cinematography, its metaphysical
underpinning, and provoked reflections did not, however, work against
structure; one could certainly perceive the wood for the trees. That structure
was rather infused with formal dynamism as well as local colour and flavour.
I had a few doubts concerning
the second and third movements, which did not, I think, entirely avoid a sense
of lingering a little too long, of sprawl. Otherwise, however, there was some
beautiful moments – and not just those of wondrous hush. The second movement
was unusually acerbic: no unduly cloying sweetness here, which is not, of
course, to say no sweetness. There was more than a hint of the Totentanz. Perhaps detail slightly overwhelmed
the whole, especially towards the end, but when compared to the mauling Simon
Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic gave this symphony a few years ago, this
was a model of cohesion. The third movement opened as bracing in its – an
inevitable metaphor, now – mountain air as Webern’s music. However,
countervailing and/or differing forces ensured the multi-dimensionality of the
drama – and of our response.
Karen Cargill brought the
appealing nature and character of her voice to sound as one with the nature and
character of the music in the fourth movement: not just colour, depth, and
vibrato, but her use of the words, with respect to meaning and also to their musical
quality. Orchestral stillness surrounded them and yet, as Galileo might have
said, the music moved – in more sense than one. The fifth movement was
appropriately child-like, although certainly not childish. Mahler’s alienated
soul rarely permits the unmediated, however much it might long for it. . The Trinity
boys offered not only very impressive diction but also a splendidly ‘Continental’
sound: more St John’s than King’s. Cargill was able here to show a
more urgent side to her Lieder-singing,
hers a dignified and illuminating performance.
Dignity was also the watchword
of the final Adagio, especially its
opening. The acoustic was not ideal for climaxes but did not too seriously
detract either. Oramo offered a warm, rich account, the BBC strings and later
other instruments giving a wonderful impression of chamber music writ large,
almost as if this were the String Quartet Mahler never wrote. The music was
chaste and yet suffused with longing, simple yet complex, private yet public:
yes, one could certainly think of this and feel it as ‘what love tells me’.
This truly sounded, and I can think of few greater compliments, as if it were Mahler’s
voice speaking. But might not the audience have allowed us even a second or two
of space for reflection before applause?