Wigglesworth's magnificent Mahler 9

As far as the mind can remember, we have had three previous performances of Mahler's Ninth Symphony at DFP since 1998. Benjamin Zander initially led a heart-wrenching interpretation of this valedictory opus in 2002. In 2011, Claus Peter Flor led a swiftly paced performance which lacked repose, whilst Yoel Gamzou in 2016 did significantly better than Claus Peter Flor.

Mark Wigglesworth's concert of the Ninth had no companion piece like Zander's and Flor's concerts. Often, conductors try to give the audiences more time value for the money by inserting a short companion piece before the Ninth. On this occasion, the superlative quality of the MPO playing and Wigglesworth's vividly characterised interpretation shone through and the shortened time value of the concert was entirely superfluous.

The opening theme in the first Andante comodo movement was taken more languidly than usual in a gorgeously autumnal tone colour, so that when the three massive climaxes appeared later, they felt properly earned. In the slow unfolding and eventual derangement-to-reconciliation of the first movement’s journey, Wigglesworth’s allowance for extreme mood changes might seem unrestrained to some listeners. It felt right, however, the only honest way to reflect the piece’s terrifying revelations of death’s inevitability.

The swiftly paced dance-led second movement, opened with a Ländler with rugged coarseness which embraced its bucolic country roots before transitioning to a wild Scherzo. The third movement, Rondo Burlesque set at a cracking pace was almost carnival-like in its boisterous energies amidst its biting satire.

The final Adagio combined supreme serenity, utmost calm and Zen-like concentration to almost unbearably moving effect. The MPO string sound, alternately whispered and thrillingly saturated, wrung every last drop of emotion from Mahler’s lines, while the solo work from across the orchestra’s sections was superb – guest principal flute Dora Seres' soli deserve a very special mention.

After the last great climax of shattering intensity, string playing of such intense beauty, longing and poignancy faded away and a long silence ensued, which Wigglesworth held for as long as possible. Then the tumultuous applause inevitably broke, as the audience sensed that Wigglesworth and the MPO gave us a most magnificent and monumental account of Mahler’s Ninth.

This was the most peerless concert that I have heard the MPO give in the 2019 season, supplanting the impressive Akiko Suwanai and Alexander Briger concert from this February. On this showing, my guest from USA opined that the MPO and Wigglesworth far outshone the regular orchestra she hears, the San Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas.