From City212.com
The New York
Philharmonic began its exciting 2009/10 season with a new Music Director, Alan
Gilbert. 212 City takes a look at The Phil's new
leader.
The arrival
of a new Music Director to the New York Philharmonic is obviously an event of
the greatest significance in New York
city's cultural life. Alan Gilbert is completing his
first month in that position. The second program of the Philharmonic's new
season was Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony, a massive composition by a composer
who was himself a former Music Director of the
Philharmonic.
Mr.
Gilbert, a youngish 42, has conducted the Philharmonic prior to this season. As
with any new music director, now that his tenure has actually begun, it is
inevitable that his talent will be more fully examined. There can be few
compositions that test a conductor's ability to shape and control vast musical
resources and structures as does Mahler's Third. As he walked onstage to conduct
last Tuesday's performance, Maestro Gilbert radiated a sunny, calm, self-
assurance. As the evening progressed it was apparent why that self-assurance was
fully justified.
Consistent
with the trends of late romanticism, virtually everything about Mahler's Third
Symphony is huge, including the number of movements (six) and its running time
(almost an hour and forty-five minutes). As one walked into Avery Fisher Hall it
appeared that a veritable musical army had assembled, with a vastly expanded
orchestra and no less than two choirs on stage.
Few
composers create such massive musical vistas or plumb emotional depths to the
degree that Mahler does. Although Mahler is certainly capable of light, charming
moments, the intensity and angst of romanticism seem to reach an apotheosis in
his symphonies. Indeed, some of his compositions can be a little unsettling to
those who prefer to remain in life's sunnier, less challenging
shallows.
In
composing his Third Symphony, Mahler revealed that he was inspired by the
beautiful, rugged mountainous landscape near his summer home in upper
....Austria..... Consistent
with his at times dark aesthetic, the first movement of the symphony conjures
nature in its forbidding and even violent qualities. After a soaring opening
motif played by eight horns, menacing chords of the Philharmonic's lower brass
immediately created an ominous atmosphere. The effect of the brass in the
opening moments of the work (and throughout the evening) was galvanizing. Its
inspiring sonic effect could never be duplicated in a recording and was a
reminder of the importance of attending live
performances.
Consistent
with any great composer, Mahler is able to traverse a variety of emotional moods
in a single composition and Maestro Gilbert admirably shaped the changing
musical tapestries. The ominous and at times bombastic atmosphere of the first
movement gave way to the more relaxed and chamber-like quality of the second,
with especially admirable, delicate playing by the violins. Although the
composer ultimately withdrew the descriptive titles, he originally entitled the
third movement of the symphony "What the Animals of the Forest Tell Me" Musically, it was as if Mahler took the
listener through a tour of an enchanted forest where one could hear the cheerful
sound of birds in the woodwinds and the roar of a bear in the
brass.
The
symphony contains text from no less than Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra with
lyrics such as "The world is deep….Deep is its pain…Joy deeper still than
heartbreak." (Again, Mahler does delve deeply). Mezzo Petra Lang's warm singing
of the text gave it a comforting, oracular quality, as if Mother Earth had
emerged to reassure the audience. Mahler cleverly used only the upper register
of the human voice to highlight the reference to angels in the chorus music of
the fifth movement. The singing of the Women of the Westminster Symphonic Choir
and The American Boychoir in this section of the work was warm, clear, and
memorable.
The scope
and breadth of the evening gave an ample opportunity to gauge Maestro Gilbert's
conducting. His presence on the podium was dynamic but workmanlike. His baton
technique seemed to be completely designed to lead the orchestra to fulfill the
composer's intentions and he eschewed exaggerated, pyrotechnical gestures.
Maestro Gilbert radiated an authority derived from competence and mastery rather
than flamboyance.
Indeed, it
was in the final movement of the work that Maestro Gilbert' s leadership
capacity was given its full expression. It was as if he led his vast
instrumental forces to ascend a mountaintop where the dark crags and conflict of
the beginning of the symphony were left behind. The Philharmonic's rendition of
the last movement was truly transcendent, and the listener basked in vast
emotional vistas of light, sunshine and hope. The elegiac playing of the strings
in this section of the symphony was particularly moving and
impressive.
At the
conclusion of the symphony, Gilbert quite rightly walked to the back of his
orchestra and singled out members of the brass section for special recognition.
Although the playing of the orchestra was virtuosic throughout, it was clearly
the brass, and especially the trombones and tuba which accentuated the
symphony's monumental quality. The audience left the concert in a happy,
triumphant mood, which clearly augurs well for the Philharmonic's new era under
Maestro Gilbert's leadership.
Postscript:
For those who could use some comedy (and these days, who couldn't) the
Philharmonic is sponsoring a solo appearance by Bill Cosby at Avery Fisher Hall
on Saturday, October 17. For more information log onto The New
York Philharmonic Website. Information on the Philharmonic radio broadcasts,
which Alec Baldwin is now hosting, can be found at The Philharmonic's broadcast
page.