The Mahler Players play Mahler's Third Symphony
Strathpeffer Pavilion, 1/6/2025
The Mahler Players, Tomas Leakey, conductor, Barbara Scott, mezzo soprano, Rob Farmer, arrangement
This performance was another carefully and thoughtfully crafted jewel in the reputation for performative achievement that the Mahler Players are making for themselves. It was an excellent and exhilarating rendition. The standing ovation from the sell-out crowd at the close was thoroughly deserved. The Third is perhaps my favourite of Mahler's symphonies, and one of the greatest yet less played in the repertoire. This is not just because of its technical requirements and dynamic range, or the length of concentrative musicality necessary, but it's huge emotional swings and philosophical depth. It is a universe of musical landscapes rooted in Mahler's beloved Austrian Alps, and commensurate with our own land of mountain and flood. But landscape here is primarily metaphor. This is Mahler's symphony of bipolarity, of manic depression, of growls and shrieks of Munch-like despair, battling with bold marches into the sunshine, joy, and eternal evanescence of nature, in which the human condition in all its variance is rooted. As far as anyone can tell, these two concerts (including the previous evening at Inverness Cathedral ) were also the first time this magnum opus has been played in the Highlands. So, a historic musical moment.
The Players are a chamber orchestra (sometimes with a few necessary additional forces). They are helped in terms of volume and resonance by their choice of venues, but to be able to play the kind of monumental work they often do requires considerable skill, musical knowledge, and a degree of controlled adventure. Take a bow Rob Farmer, who is responsible for many of their scaled- down arrangements. To take a work scored originally for 200 musicians and be able to parse Mahler's orchestral intent with no loss of power or delicacy is a notable achievement. Indeed, I would argue that it also brings something to the party sonically: an additional intimacy and immediacy, and a heightened colour to the soundscape. This performance had real integrity. The six hugely varied movements made a satisfying emotional whole. All the soloists rose to the occasion, the 'O Mensch' was beautifully sung by mezzo soprano Barbara Scott, and when the all-female chorus came to the front of the orchestra and sang the morning bells angels' reply of the short fifth movement, accompanied by tubular bells, there were smiles all around. (I looked.) There only remained the great longing joyfully sad/sadly joyful 'Empfunden' finale, sometimes called 'What Love Tells Me' from Mahler's original programmatic notes, with its titanic full blaze of orchestra and tympani climax, one of the finest in all music. And here again, the Players absolutely nailed it. If I were an executive of a classic music label, I would be knocking at the Mahler Players’ door. What Mahlerian would not be interested in a chamber orchestra sequence of his works, at this level of interpretation and intensity?