At a time when UK orchestras and promoters are struggling to fill concert halls, the sight of a near-capacity crowd at the 5,000 seat Royal Albert Hall is a joyous one, particularly when the stage and choir is just as packed, with 120 musicians of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and 130 singers of the Philharmonia Chorus. It won’t surprise anyone that the occasion for such numbers was a large scale Mahler symphony: in this case, the Second, “Resurrection”. The size and enthusiasm of the audience was a fine demonstration both of the popularity of Mahler’s big works and of the progress the RPO have been making since the appointment of Vasily Petrenko as their Music Director.
Perhaps more of a surprise is that it wasn’t the big “wall of sound” moments that impressed most. Rather, it was the quieter moments that Petrenko painted exquisitely. Mahler may demand a huge orchestra, but he often uses his players sparsely, to obtain variety of colour and texture rather than to blast your ears to shreds. Under Petrenko’s quiet, attentive eye, the strings produced wonderful lyricism and lilt, with excellent quality of ensemble.
The second movement Ländler swayed entrancingly, woodwind solos beautifully taken, with special credit to John Roberts and Patrick Flanagan for oboe and cor anglais solos, and to clarinettist Katherine Lacy for her part in Mahler’s joyful klezmer-like outbursts. There were memorable brass moments as well: the chorale that opens the fourth movement was rounded and reverential; the off-stage horns in the fifth, played from on high, added nostalgia and a clear sense of space. The trumpets had their glorious moment of lyricism in the Scherzo.
The excitement of listening to music in such a huge packed hall has its drawbacks, though. The Royal Albert Hall is a big space to fill and, for much of the concert, the orchestra sounded a touch distant. This is a symphony with extreme dynamics and the RPO didn’t always reach those extremes. At the very beginning, for example, the figures on low strings lacked incision; the repeated descending three-note motif was played with some vigour, but didn’t cut to the core. Similarly, the tutti which opens the fifth movement, perhaps the biggest moment of the whole symphony, had some impact – but there was the opportunity for more.
On the other hand, you couldn’t have asked for more from the singers. Mezzo Jennifer Johnston was nothing less than sublime in Urlicht, bringing the audience from the melancholic depth of humanity’s pain and need, in her resonant chest voice, to the radiant hope of everlasting life in her upper register. The choir, who have to wait patiently until half way through the fifth movement for their entry, were sensational; intonation was immaculate, ensemble was spot on, words were intelligible in spite of being sung at the quietest of pianissimi (and, for the basses, going down to an impossibly low B flat below the stave). Soprano Elizabeth Watts soared beautifully above them and then combined wonderfully with Johnston to take us away “on angel’s wings”.
Somehow, when writing this symphony, Mahler took horrific family tragedy and turned it into hugely life-affirming music. A bigger sound would have been desirable in a number of places, but even without it, this was a finely crafted and spiritually uplifting performance.
