BBCSSO: Mahler’s Tenth Symphony
City Halls, Glasgow 8/10/26
BBCSSO, Antony Hermus (conductor)
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s 2026-27 season continued on 8th October in Glasgow’s City Halls, under the baton of popular Dutch guest conductor Antony Hermus (also Chief Conductor Designate, starting from the 2027-28 season) in a programme with the tagline ‘Life, Love & Farewell’, a reference to the headline work, Mahler’s monumental and heart-rending Abschied, his unfinished Tenth Symphony in F sharp minor, in the completed performing version prepared in the 1960s by musicologist Deryck Cooke (and subsequently revised by him and his collaborators). The concert opened with a short piece, described as “a haunted, restless meditation on loss, Mahler and mortality”, by the Dutch composer Willem Jeths. Swiss violinist and First Concertmaster at the Bern Symphony Orchestra, David Guerchovitch, returned as Guest Leader fot the evening; he last guested in March, and before that in October 2025. The Central Belt’s Mahlerians were out in force and attendance was very satisfactory. The performance was broadcast live on Radio 3, introduced for the hall and the airwaves by Kate Molleson. A second performance was scheduled for the following night in Perth Concert Hall. With over 90 musicians on stage, this was set to be a major concert,
Willem Jeths’ ‘Mors Aeterna’ was written in 2015, not as a prologue to Mahler’s Tenth, but as an ‘appetiser’ (the composer’s own word in a pre-concert talk – “preliminary study” in his programme notes) for his own large-scale Requiem, with choir and soloists, premiered two years later. Not only did it work perfectly in this new context but, in a concert with no interval, the Mahler began immediately without a break. When I heard about this in the pre-concert talk, I confess to having had misgivings; they proved unfounded. The piece began with, and was largely dominated by, the bass instruments, establishing a sepulchral mood and the metre of a funeral march, very Mahlerian, but with Sibelian stillness and mystery. A fanfare of chattering brass recalled a similar episode in the first movement of Mahler 1, while a massive wooden hammer and block (the theatricality of Mahler 6 meeting the spirit-shocking bass drum of the finale of the Tenth) brought us face-to-face with the jolt of an encounter with mors stupebit. A flute solo’s solace was similarly jolted. A return to Sibelian stillness eased the tension and there was catharsis from the mysterious unknowability of what, if anything, lies after death. Harp and double-bass morendo concluded. Without a trace of atonality or minimalism or aleatorism or any “other” nonsense, the 9-minute piece had a directness and profundity that had me onside from the beginning and captivated to the end. Super piece; compelling performance.
The desolate violas that open the Mahler and return twice in the first movement started immediately. The movement is long because it contains everything, tenderness and rage, passion and dejection, hope and despair, cries of love and cries of pain. The pain for Mahler was real, physical from terminal heart disease, emotional from the loss of his eldest daughter to diphtheria and scarlet fever, and the discovery that his wife Alma was having an affair. There was guilt too: guilt at tempting fate by composing ‘Kindertotenlieder’ and having been an inconsiderate husband. The raw candour of every detail was revealed in a reading that brought the same compelling directness that we had heard in the Jeths, within a clear vision of the whole enormous and often episodic structure. Tender strings reached out longingly. There were dance fragments, some slightly macabre, others parodic of klezmer. Also touching solos for violin and cello. A huge searing tutti discord made the anguish real. Tender dialogue between first and second violins brought solace, and the movement concluded in fragile but welcome repose.
The first of the two scherzi switched back and forth between two dance forms, one fractured with irregular metre and the other a ländler with schmaltzy waltz and piquant klezmer inclusions. Rather surreal and dissociated, and magically realised. The central movement, ‘Purgatorio’, was even more surreal and detached. Whatever purification these souls are undergoing, they have surrendered completely to it. The second scherzo was a brutal driven and rather demonic waltz. There were anguished stabs of pain, while moments of reprieve were short-lived. The music wavered between surrender and rebellion, with great solos from violin, trombone, flute and viola. A stylish parodic coda from the two timpanists was killed with a bang from the bass drum.
The long finale thus began with gloomy bass instruments (like in the Jeths), repeatedly silenced by blows on the bass drum. A sad and wistful flute solo was very beautiful, as was the response from the violins, though it too was interrupted by the drum. A brisk breezy march smacked more of bravado than wellbeing. Another huge anguished discord, like that in the first movement, brought the pain front and centre again. A quotation from the desolate viola melody at the beginning of the symphony brought us full circle. From here on, there was a change to a bittersweetness and a mood of acceptance. Music of great tenderness but also wistfulness tinged with regret took us to the final resolution. One final sigh, and the symphony ended at peace. And in complete silence, until unfortunately one solitary clapper started to applaud, stopping quickly when they realised they were alone, but the spell was broken.
An emotionally involving and revelatory performance with well-nigh 100 musicians “in the zone”, taking a large spellbound audience with them on a cathartic journey of the soul. Unforgettable, and boding well for the 2027-28 season and into the future.