Germany Musikfest Berlin 2024 [3] – Hindemith, Zemlinsky, and Mahler: Lester Lynch (baritone), Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle (conductor). Philharmonie Berlin, 3.9.2024. (MB)
Hindemith – Rag Time (wohltemperiert)
Zemlinsky – Symphonische Gesänge, Op.20
Mahler – Symphony No.6 in A minor
In a live performance of two unequal halves, the primary, shorter half proved the higher wager. Incisive accounts of Hindemith’s Rag Time and Zemlinsky’s Symphonische Gesänge sat sadly with a efficiency of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony that urged Simon Rattle’s prolonged post-Birmingham spell, amply demonstrated in Berlin and London, of pulling music, Mahler’s included, round to no discernible finish has some method to go in Munich too. One facet of curiosity was in fact merely to listen to Rattle together with his new orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony. There was some wonderful taking part in to be heard. To my ears, although – it was not solely the corridor, since I’ve heard Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra sparkle on the Philharmonie – the Mahler sound proved strikingly just like that from the Berlin Philharmonic throughout its final, considerably truculent days with the conductor. This new partnership, enthusiastically acclaimed by many within the viewers – as appears to be the case for any outdated Mahler efficiency, good, unhealthy, or detached – appeared as but a work-in-progress.
Hindemith’s Bach-inspired Ragtime made its level with out overstaying its welcome. As with a lot music of the Nineteen Twenties, the ghost (even when alive) of Busoni hovered over concord and orchestration. Onerous-edged and never a bit outrageous, it made for an apt prelude to Zemlinsky’s 1929 settings of texts from the gathering Afrika singt. Lester Lynch made for an eloquent, honest, usually transferring soloist, sympathetically accompanied by Rattle, in a piece that, musically, appeared to take up the place the composer’s Lyric Symphony left off, albeit sparer and darker. The primary track’s opening woodwind traces, excellently carried out by BRSO principals, have been a living proof. The deep unhappiness of considered one of a number of Langston Hughes settings (in translation) set the tone for a lot to return in music whose invention proved completely equal to the duty, Zemlinsky’s brass writing (and the BRSO’s taking part in) in ‘Erkenntnis’ hanging certainly. When darkish, it was a multicoloured darkness, as in ‘Totes braunes Mädel’; when distinction got here, as within the scherzo-like ‘Übler Bursche’ and the defiant menace of ‘Afrikanischer Tanz’, it registered as meet and proper. The ultimate ‘Arabeske’ supplied Twenties’ Neue Sachlichkeit with a coronary heart, solidarity with a wonderful mind, crystallised in performances that exulted with out naïveté.
It was a brisk funeral march that opened the Mahler: nothing flawed with that, though on this symphony, few have matched and certainly none will surpass the incendiary outcomes of Pierre Boulez’s extra measured opening, each on file and in live performance. With Boulez, as with few others, the entire of Mahler’s tragedy is implicit, even inevitable within the first bars. With Rattle, there was actually a lot, although the final ‘tone’ appeared odd: a ‘midsummer night time’s Mahler’ maybe. Rattle’s manner with the chorale that connects the primary and second topics was actually a factor of marvel, turning mysteriously inward. The aftermath of the second, ‘Alma’ theme, misplaced all momentum, slowing to the purpose of exhaustion, though selecting up for a lot of the event. Furthermore, the hard-edged, Weill-like sonorities that had characterised performances earlier than the interval, appeared more and more misplaced right here. There was one thing else lacking, although. As soon as I realised what it was, its deadly precedent the work as an entire couldn’t be escaped: an unwillingness to let concord basically and harmonic rhythm specifically floor, inform, and incite the music’s progress. What we heard was a sequence of unconnected passages, some extra nightmarish than others, in a considerably loud and overbearing stream of consciousness. It is a symphony and Mahler’s most Classically conceived symphony at that; lose that and also you lose a lot of its level.
There was an irony, then, to Rattle’s insistence on inserting the Andante second: a typical pseudo-literalism these days, one which hardly ever if ever convinces. It benefited from wonderful solo taking part in, horn and violin specifically. Fairly a head of steam was whipped up on the shut, arguably excessively so. What all of it may imply, no matter whether or not that may or needs to be put into phrases, eluded me. Regardless of its inserting third, the Scherzo fared higher, at the very least to start with. Its opening had a stronger sense of rhythm, harmonic rhythm included, and the orchestral taking part in displayed a broader vary of color. Alas, Rattle’s inclination to drag materials round quickly received the higher of him; the deliberate grew to become merely mannered.
The finale had its moments, nevertheless it wants greater than moments. It must be heard as a single, unbroken span, or will in the end be little greater than a waste of time. A nightmarish opening augured nicely, however Rattle failed to ascertain a elementary pulse. Listlessness could have been the thought, however basic ‘temper’ was no substitute for what was missing. Which may work, or fail to work much less badly, for 2 or three minutes, however for thirty? The motion’s kind and construction have been merely not there; nor have been these of the symphony as an entire. Individuals visibly thrilled to the 2 hammer-blows and, to be honest, the primary for some time appeared actually to have knocked the music into form, however why was it there? In any case, the outdated listlessness quickly reasserted itself and the second went for much less. A pity.
Mark Berry