The Mariinsky Orchestra Performs six of Gustav Mahler's symphonies

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Friday, 29 October 2010 16:08

Written by Jack Angstreich

Under the baton of the indefatigable Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky Orchestra presented an amazingly ambitious series of six of Gustav Mahler's symphonies in five concerts spread over eight days beginning on October 17th, 2010, at Carnegie Hall. Gergiev will return in February to conduct the balance of the Mahler symphonies -- the Third, the Seventh, and the Ninth  -- with the London Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall.

I was unable to attend the first program, Mahler's majestic Sixth Symphony, although I was fortunate to hear this work a couple of weeks before, played by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Alan Gilbert. Despite considerable unevenness in the playing, I appreciated all these concerts very much.

On Wednesday, the 20th, the Orchestra performed the monumental Second Symphony, the "Resurrection", heard at Carnegie Hall last spring in a powerful account by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas. Wednesday's performance had an astonishing opening but some subsequent roughness compromised the total impression of the first movement.

Similar difficulties diminished the second movement as well, but there were many beautiful passages. The effect of third movement was more forceful while in the fourth, I would have liked more assurance from the mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina. However, Gergiev did achieve a stupendous finale aided by the forces of two choirs, the Choral Arts Society of Washington and Orfeón Pamplonés, along with Borodina, more impressive here, and the soprano Anastasia Kalagina, also excellent. However, the deployment of offstage horns was less effective in this hall than at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine last spring, where I heard the same work played by the orchestra of the Manhattan School of Music -- improbably enough, on the day before the San Francisco Symphony performance.

On Thursday, the same two choirs returned with the Orchestra assisted by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy and eight vocal soloists to undertake the gargantuan Eighth Symphony, the "Symphony of a Thousand". Part One was played with admirable restraint and fluency while Part Two balanced robustness with grace.

Friday's concert consisted of the relatively smaller-scale Fifth Symphony and was possibly the most satisfyingly played in the series. The first movement was wrenching but controlled while the second achieved great force. After a vibrant Scherzo, the Adagietto proved haunting. The finale was perhaps too violent but not without character.

The final concert in the series was devoted to the shorter Fourth and First Symphonies.

The playing of the Fourth was inconsistent throughout with delicate accentuation periodically undercut by awkwardness; Kalagina sang with poignancy but fell short of the gorgeous renditions of the same music sung by Miah Persson and Susan Graham, both heard at Lincoln Center recently.

The First Symphony was an improvement. The first movement was less cohesive than the tuneful second, while the celebrated third movement had an admirable clarity. The boisterous finale was memorable.

I look forward to Gergiev's arrival in February.