OVERNIGHT REVIEW: Los Angeles Philharmonic opens "The Mahler Project" at Walt Disney Concert Hall

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
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Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Mahler: Songs of a Wayfarer; Symphony No. 4
Friday, January 13, 2012 • Walt Disney Concert Hall
Next performances: Tonight at 8, tomorrow at 2 p.m. Preconcert lectures one hour before each concert.
Information: www.laphil.com
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The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Mahler Project,” which began last night at Walt Disney Concert Hall, will ooze grandiose power during the next 16 performances. Last night, however, Music Director Gustavo Dudamel reminded everyone that there’s another, more lyrical side to the Austrian composer/conductor, as well. One thing seems certain: if the quality of future performances match last night’s, it’s going to be a very special three-plus weeks in the City of the Angels.

Another interesting aspect of the “Project” is that — as is the case when you experience Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen as a cycle (i.e., four operas with the span of a week or so) — hearing all of Mahler’s symphonies plus a song cycle in close proximity to each other will help listeners link ties and themes (Wagner called them leitmotivs) from one piece to another.

Case in point was that song cycle — Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), or Songs of a Wayfaring Journeyman, as preconcert lecturer Stephen Hefling titled it — which opened the proceedings last night. This was Mahler’s first mature work and many of its themes appear in later pieces. For example, themes from the second song (I Went Over the Field This Morning) and the melancholy “funeral march” of the final song, (The Two Blue Eyes of My Beloved) show up again in Symphony No. 1 (the funeral march was the first of many that Mahler would write).

The cycle’s four poems (Mahler wrote both the texts and music) are from a 23-year-old man experiencing his first passionate love (with a soprano named Johanna Richter) and they depict the wide range of emotions that would permeate all of Mahler’s later works. Baritone Thomas Hampson matched Mahler’s moods with his sensitive singing that was notable both for its shimmering quality and pathos. Dudamel and the orchestra accompanied sensitively.

Symphony No. 4 is the closest that Mahler came to a standard four-movement symphony format, although whether any work that begins with sleigh bells and concludes with a song that references asparagus, a slain ox and 11,000 martyred virgins can be called “standard” is, of course, open to question.

Dudamel — who as was the case with Songs of a Wayfarer, conducted Symphony No. 4 without a score — elicited a probing, urgent, scintillating performance from the Philharmonic. He stretched tempos, but not overly so. The restatement of the opening-movement theme was wonderfully majestic, and Principal Concertmaster Martin Chalifour’s solos on his “other” violin (in the second movement, Mahler called for a solo violin tuned higher than normal to simulate a country fiddler) were sparkling.

Dudamel was really in his element in the grand Adagio, building the section’s opening theme beginning with cellos and then adding violas, second violins and first violins, all while Principal Oboist Ariana Ghez and Principal Horn Andrew Bain were inserting exquisite solos. (It’s worth noting that Dudamel’s seating arrangement this season — with violas far right and all of the violins clustered on the left — really paid dividends in this movement.) The young Venezuelan (he turns age 32 in a couple of weeks) also kept dynamics in check so well that the big E-major chord really exploded off the stage.

Swedish soprano Miah Persson (who will also solo in the Jan. 22 performance of the Resurrection Symphony) came onstage before the third movement last night and sat quietly within the orchestra (in front of the winds). She then moved front and center for her fourth-movement poem, Heavenly Life, which she sang with opulent radiance. The ending was as wistfully quiet as I can remember hearing, an effect that will show up again to conclude the Ninth Symphony in early February. Between now and then, it sounds like we’re in for quite a ride.
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Hemidemisemiquavers:
• Hefling — professor of music at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland — delivered an excellent, albeit academic, lecture before the concert. Unfortunately, many of his projections were unreadable from the back of the room and the screen should have been higher (he kept highlighting things at the bottom of the images that couldn’t be seen through people’s heads). Nonetheless, it was an insightful lecture that had a real bonus: selections of Mahler playing portions of his songs via 1905 piano rolls.
• Considering that most of Mahler’s symphonies stretch more than 75 minutes in length, the Phil’s decision to insert an intermission between the 20-minute song cycle and the 59-minute symphony seemed a bit strange going in. However, aside from allowing the Phil to rack up bucks with booze sales, the decision also gave listeners a chance to savor the exquisite performance from Hampson and the Phil before tackling the symphony.
• The printed program, which covers all the “Mahler Project” concerts, lists the Adagio from Symphony No. 10 following Symphony No. 1 in next weekend’s concerts. That makes sense from a bookend point of view but how this will come off in performance will be one of the intriguing aspects of those concerts. Dudamel may not hold to what’s on the printed page — in previous seasons, he has occasionally reordered works after putting them into rehearsal.
• Take note: Friday is a “Casual Friday” concert, which means that the Adagio from Symphony No. 10 will not be played. Usually this format includes a musician talking before the performance, a Q&A (which often includes Dudamel), following the performance, and a reception with musicians in the downstairs café afterwards.
• Next week’s Mahler No. 1 preconcert lectures by Gilbert Kaplan (LINK) begins at 6:30 p.m. (90 minutes before the concert). The preconcert lecture by Kaplan in advance of Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) will begin at 6 p.m. on Jan, 22. Both lectures will be in the main auditorium (not BP Hall) and can also be attended by those without concert tickets. Reserve ahead of time (323/850-2000 or via email to information@laphil.org with “Mahler Project RSVP” in the subject line) and plan on arriving at least 15 minutes before the lecture time.


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(c) Copyright 2012, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.

Comments

[MarK]

Your speed of writing and posting reviews is admirable and the sheer volume of information in them is impressive. It is understandable therefore that some inaccuracies do creep in from time to time. For example, Maestro Dudamel is still only 30 and is not turning 31 until next week. When you wrote that The Fourth "is the closest that Mahler came to a standard four-movement symphony format" you must have forgotten The First which is certainly closer to it by far. A question: when you write that "seating arrangement with violas far right and all of the violins clustered on the left really paid dividends in this movement", what do you mean by that? In what way was it better than with a different seating? To my ears, in that particular slow movement (as well as in many others) the stereo separation effect is much more interesting when second violins are seated on the opposite side from the firsts.

[Bob Thomas]

My comment about the string placement was that I found it interesting (especially from where I was sitting) to hear the particular theme in question move, essentially, from the right side of the orchestra to the left, section by section. Of course there are moments when having the violins split produces its own distinctive sound. From my perspective, the biggest sound adjustment that both of these seating arrangements make is to put the cellos somewhere in the middle of the orchestra, which produces a more resonant sound, to my ears. Splitting the violins, which moves the violas more “inside,” adds to that rich sound, IMHO, although there are conductors who continue to place the cellos on the far right side or the orchestra.

[MarK]

Here we agree - i am also a fan of cellos near the middle, and (in most cases) of "split" fiddles too.