Gamzou’s extraordinary Mahler 9

Mahler’s Ninth is no ordinary piece for armchair or concert hall listening. This work in particular is fatally imbued with themes of his own approaching demise, constantly speaking of farewells that are loving and fervent as well as admiration for that which is left behind. Bitterness is also in abundance.

Encouraged by a friend who attended Yoel Gamzou’s MPO rehearsal as well as his concert on 23 January 2016, I sacrificed my Sunday afternoon nap on 24 January to watch an amazing performance of Mahler’s Ninth.

The concert opened with Mahler’s Five Rückert Lieder, warmly sung by the Brazilian baritone Paulo Szot. The MPO and Gamzou accompanied Szot discreetly.

Having being weaned on Herbert von Karajan’s award-winning DG live Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra recording from 1982, I found it very interesting that 28-year old Gamzou’s interpretation of the symphony managed to trump Karajan's reading in places and convince me of this young conductor's talent for Mahler’s music and very intimate knowledge of a piece which some conductors would not even touch at 50 years old.

The first movement (Andante comodo) was fully of intensity and beauty, played with secure technical command and with vivid characterisation. The second movement (Im tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers) was faster than usual, as Gamzou drove the MPO to great heights of virtuosity.

The Rondo Burlesque: Allegro assai was waspish at a fast pace and the MPO rendered this movement with heart stopping virtuosity too.

In the final Adagio, the collective MPO played well but lacked the last ounce of spirituality. At the end of the movement, a member of the audience rudely broke the spell of “dying away” (ersterbend) by clapping way too soon.

I'd be first in the ticket queue if Gamzou were invited back to conduct more Mahler with the MPO. He's a conductor who really studies the scores intently, conducts with clarity and balances the complex Mahlerian strands and textures perfectly.

Woeful brass mars Luisi's return visit

A return visit from maestro Fabio Luisi was a much-awaited event at the MPO on 7 Nov 2015. On a previous showing with the MPO, he drilled the often-maligned MPO musicians into a superhuman showing in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

On this visit, he offered just one piece – Mahler’s Seventh Symphony in E minor, which is about 80 minutes long. This time, even he was unable to work miracles with the MPO, which had quite a lot of substitute woodwind and brass players as usual.

Luisi tried to characterize Mahler’s musical intentions vividly. A guest leader (Marie Rossano) led the orchestra on the night. The MPO strings were indeed quite vivid in their characterization, as were the woodwinds.

The very obvious let down for the night were horns and the massed brass instruments, which were frequently woefully out of tune, had masses of cracked notes and were poor in ensemble playing.

This persistently poor brass playing in the first movement spilled over into the second movement. The opening horn solo has the notes (G, C, E, G, C, A flat and G) in the score but the principal horn player for the night played (G, C, E, G, B, A flat and G) instead, fluffing a very simple 2nd inversion C major arpeggio. One does wonder if the horn players employed at the MPO are truly professional.

Musically, the third and fourth movements improved with some better playing. Particularly, the fourth movement was quite well played with some lovely portamento playing from guest leader Rossano.

The poor brass playing reared its ugly head again in the fifth and final triumphant movement. The rowdy brass players in the previous concert I attended (of the Sibelius Violin Concerto where they played havoc with balances and obliterated the cutting edge of a 1707 Golden Period Stradivarius violin) were suddenly very shy and lacked sufficient power in Mahler’s final peroration of (G, E, D and C).