July 2000 Concert - Review by David Lamb

For several reasons this will not be my usual long-winded report on the summer Mahler performance.   I could not hear the concert out front because I was playing in the orchestra. And because I was an active participant, I have barely a shred of objectivity.  Besides all that, I am leaving almost immediately for a music-free week in the Canadian Rockies.   Having made my disclaimers, I will tell you what I can.

This was the fifth season of the Northwest Mahler Festival and by far the most ambitions project we have undertaken.  If we had known the endless labors involved, we might not have had the courage to try it.   The orchestra is now well enough established so that most of the players have played several Mahler symphonies before and have developed a feel for the style and technical demands.  We have also had time to get used to Geoffrey Simon's leadership.  Although we did the Second a year and a half ago, we were faced with another order of magnitude in recruiting the huge chorus for the Eighth.  Auditioning soloists was another serious job that required Geoffrey Simon to make a number of extra trips to Seattle.  Then there were logistic problems to solve: installing a large electric organ, procuring and moving a celesta and harmonium, etc.   In the end it all came together in a way that I would call miraculous if I did not know that it was brought about through the tireless hard work of a lot of dedicated people.

The most striking thing about the NW Mahler Festival is that it is a totally volunteer effort.  Our cast of soloists was one of the finest I have heard either in the concert hall or on record.  Not only were they excellent as individuals, but they balanced each other exceptionally well.  I want to name them because you should be listening for them in the future.  Victoria Gydov, Hyun Joo Yang, and Catherine Haight, sopranos; Janna Wächter and Diane Radabaugh, altos; Leslie Green, tenor; Stephen Janzen, baritone; Michael Delos, bass.  Dr. Eric Hanson prepared the chorus through a couple of months of weekend rehearsals.  He conducted our M2 performance in 1999 and is a thorough-going Mahlerian.  The boys choir was prepared by Joseph Crnko.  The boys were fresh from their performance of M3 with the SSO last month and were in very good voice.

I wish I could give you a page by page guided tour of the performance, but I won't try this time.  It seemed to me that there was an immense vitality and excitement that held its intensity all the way through.  Simon's tempi were often somewhat faster than usual, and on the whole I think it worked well.  There were times when I thought the tempo made it difficult for the singers to pronounce the words, but it made sense in the overall design.  The pace of the fugue, for example, was quite literally breath-taking.  It made a refreshing change from performances where you feel that they are bogged down in the counterpoint.  This development section had a sense of urgency and purpose.  The spooky section after RN 23 (the place with all the 5/4 bars and meter changes) really benefited from the brisk tempo.  This section reveals the expressionist side of Mahler, and Simon has always been good at emphasizing it.  The beginning of the second movement was wonderfully slow in contrast.  It is surprising how hard it is to get an orchestra to play slow and soft.  Simon insisted on it and got what he wanted in that opening section.

I do have a few complaints of course.  The main one is that it was sometimes impossible to get the pianissimo required for the solo accompaniments.  Mahler demands incredible flexibility in this department -- a level of finesse that is possible only with the most experienced orchestras after a lot of rehearsal.  I complain too about Mahler's writing in the bass aria passage.  It seems to me that the master simply miscalculated on this one both in the way he composed the vocal line and the frenetic orchestration he chose to put behind it.  I have never heard this passage done convincingly or well.  All the rest of the solo arias glowed with clarity.  The last quiet chorus section with "Alles Vergängliche" was ravishing.  Some of us in the orchestra had to struggle against our tears in order to play the finale.  The offstage brass were truly awesome, and the whole thing ended on a high level of exaltation.  It was truly an unforgettable experience for all of us who participated, and the audience responded with a tremendous ovation.

Now I am off to Canada.  If any of you heard the performance on the Internet, I would like to hear your comments.  I'll be back to my computer in a week.