More Mahler (and some Debussy)

We'd thought the the CBSO's performance of Mahler's 1st. Symphony under Sakiri Oramo last November had been so wonderful that we were looking forward to hearing them play Mahler again last night, this time joined by Anne Sophie von Otter, in his song symphony Das Lied von der Erde. It's a work which we hardly know.

Unfortunately she was ill, but perhaps it was just as well that she didn't see that even a classical music superstar couldn't fill more the three quarters of the seats in Symphony Hall. We've only been to the place once and seen it full. Maybe it's just too big for the size of audience that the West Midlands can scrape together? If I was the management, I'd be worried. But I digress...

The short first half was Debussy's La Mer. A clever work, but not a favourite with either of us. It was played with enthusiasm, but it didn't do much for me; although I was amused to see that it was finished in Eastbourne. Not a very Debussian (?) location...

The hour-long Lied filled the second half. I feared the worst in the first song. The Tenor's voice was frequently overpowered by the orchestra and had an odd nasal, whining timbre. The first problem was down to him, but I've just read that the second is Mahler's responsibility: he wanted to conjure up the Chinese heritage of the poems he'd used. So fair enough I suppose.

The alto who replaced von Otter was fine, which left one to concentrate on the music. I know that it was written when Mahler was at a particularly low point in his life and that the work is intended to have a valedictory feel to it, but I just found it soporific. All his melodic and orchestral trademarks were there, but none of the movements ever got going or, on the other hand, avoided plumbing too deeply the melancholy depths. Each movement seemed to bumble along with the odd isolated spark of colour and excitement or moment of still, sad pathos to relieve a very samey texture. Who was to blame: Mahler, Oramo or Mark?

I thought that it was just me being tired, not having slept well for a couple of nights, but no, Gill felt the same. So, we'll just have to hope that it was Mahler, as we are going to hear Oramo conduct his 2nd Symphony in a couple of months and we know that's magnificent....

Gill took some photos, of which the best is this study of the canal at night after the concert:


So the high spot of the evening was an excellent quick pre-concert dinner at Bank, decided upon on a whim after a quick survey of the Brindley Place eateries.