What a brilliant Mahler 1 from de Burgos

Having missed Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos previous concerts with the MPO in the past years, I was determined to attend this concert on 12 June 2010, with his own orchestration of the Albeniz Suite Espagnole (5 pieces of 8 orchestrated) as well as my favourite Mahler Symphony No 1. My friends said that de Burgos is a phenomenal musician and conductor. Therefore I had to see for myself and witness first hand on what the all fuss was about. All lot of conductor reputations are sometimes media-made and de Burgos is certainly a low-keyed personality amongst the elderly conductors today.

I bought a highly priced XRCD of the Albeniz (which is now autographed by maestro de Burgos along with an EMI Mendelssohn's Violin Concertos LP with Lord Menuhin!). On that XRCD, the Suite had a running order of Castilla, Asturias, Aragon, Cadiz, Sevilla, Granada, Cataluna and Cordoba. In concert with the MPO, 5 pieces were chosen and the running order was Castilla, Granada, Sevilla, Asturias and Aragon.

This was indeed a refreshing concert as the Albeniz was receiving its premiere at the DFP hall. Concert programming had become somewhat stale at the DFP and this was a refreshing change from the norm. Obviously with the excellent clarity of the DFP hall, the lovely orchestral version of the Suite had its brilliant moments including one very gorgeous flute solo (by Hristo Dobrinov).

After the interval, I witnessed one of the very best Mahler 1's in the DFP hall. This probably included MPO/Bakels as well as Pittsburgh/Jansons here. The playing was not flawless with little niggles here and there (like the ensemble playing was not spot on when the orchestra did not change together at the multiple octave "A" at the beginning of the symphony).

However, the MPO musicians really adore de Burgos as a man and conductor. They built up the interpretation of the Mahler lovingly with ideal tempos and relished the complex details of nature that Mahler "painted" on his first massive orchestral canvas. Even the usual brilliant-toned trumpeter Jon Dante played with an unusually warm tone. The grand conclusion brought the house down and the audience gave maestro de Burgos a long and rousing standing ovation.

If the DFP ever release a live series of CD performances, I believe that this one performance would be an excellent one to launch a DFP-Live CD series. I would certainly be the first in the queue to obtain the disc. I believe this performance is one of the 3 best Mahler 1's I have heard. The other two on CD are Gary Bertini/Cologne RSO (EMI) and Rafael Kubelik/BRSO (Audite).

Now the next interesting comparison is to see how the Berlin PO & Sir Simon Rattle fare in this very same symphony in the Esplanade in Singapore in November 2010. I already have the tickets for this and will report back here in due course.