Triumphant resurrection of Mahler’s masterpiece
With the crash of the opening notes from the first movement of the Siam Philharmonic’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.2, it was evident we were in for a gigantic 85-minute ride.
Traversing musical terrain not heard in Thailand before, Mahler’s monumental work, subtitled The Resurrection, employs orchestral forces of the largest scale together with mixed chores of 200 or more voices. Such forces are needed to convey the idea Mahler delivers of the Big Picture; life, death and the afterlife.
Such extra-musical references forming into metaphysics and spiritual ascendancy may not be entirely new but in the hands of Gustav Mahler they take on a gravitas and dimension that is akin in size, scale, and shape to nothing else. This is big stuff.
Not all the orchestras of the world are up to the task of performing Mahler’s massive works, especially this particular symphony. The musical lines are exposed and there are ample short solos for most of the instruments, including the harp. There is little or no room for error here.
The performance, conducted by Somtow Sucharitkul on Feb 18, rippled with ample moments of ecstatic charge and soft tenderness from the orchestral lines. With the opening of the Fourth Movement, Urlicht or primal light, Mezzo Grace Echauri from Mexico intoned, “O red rose...mankind lies in the greatest need...its greatest suffering...I am of God and to God I shall return...grant me the light for my way to eternal, blissful life”. It was emotionally shattering and pierced the heart like a sharp blade.
With the fading out of her last note, the orchestra exploded in a fury opening up all the graves of the dead to begin their march heavenwards, the offstage brass summoning the souls to rise. The orchestral palate became coloured by solo instruments beckoning the souls forth in a long procession, and here is where the symphony hit its stride with fanfares of glorious sounds culminating in a cacophony of brass, woodwinds, strings, tam tams and percussion enough to raise the roof of hell itself.
Offstage brass called to the bird of death intoned by the flute and piccolo. Soprano Nancy Yeun and the chorus intoned the resurrection with the words, “Rise from the dead to Eternal life.....Believe my heart nothing will be lost, you were not born in vain, what has perished must rise again”. And so we are lifted into heaven with the full orchestra, chorus and soloists.
With this Mahler work the Siam Philharmonic concluded its Mahler cycle of performing all 10 symphonies plus the Lied Von Der Erde, a large-scale song cycle which many consider a symphony in itself. The cycle began in 2008 with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Right from the beginning with that symphony this orchestra acquitted itself in Mahler’s oeuvre with a dedication rarely seen in musicians of any country.
The cycle was not without its glitches of course, yet nothing serious enough to dash the confidence of the players. And as the cycle moved on over the years the performance standards and artistic development of the players has become more and more evident. And now with the conclusion of the cycle with The Resurrection, that performance standard and level of artistic achievement has become quite obvious. The Siam Philharmonic and its remarkable music director Somtow Sucharitkul have brought this orchestra into a realm worthy of any of today’s great orchestras.
A brief note here on another performance in February. Siam Sinfonietta, conducted by Somtow as well, is made up of young musicians from the ages of 12 to 22, but the sounds they make are anything but childish. At Thailand Cultural Centre in mid-February, they played a short but shattering programme containing what is considered the “most difficult” piece in the classical repertoire, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite Of Spring.
Of all the music literature they have ventured into, it’s a major milestone to attempt the wild soundscapes of The Rite, a work that infamously had audiences rioting in the concert hall at its Paris premiere in 1913. In a brave leap of musical faith, conductor and artistic director Somtow led these musicians across Stravinsky’s score. While no riots ensued during the performance here, the sounds created a resonance in the concert hall that was palpable throughout the entire performance.
The concert must be noted as a rite of passage for this young persons’ orchestra, a milestone in its relatively short performance history. It’s a marker event in the ongoing evolution of the artistic development of these fine young musicians.