Franz Schubert
Gustav Mahler
incident light
respond
Heavenly mix of Mahler and Schubert
music
April 1, 2017
Factually speaking, San Antonio
Symphony music director Sebastian
Lang-Lessing was born in Germany.
Spiritually speaking, he’s Viennese
through and through. Or so it would
seem from his leadership of superb
performances of Franz Schubert’s
“Unfinished” Symphony and Gustav
Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, March 31
in the Tobin Center.
Schubert was born in Vienna, and it
was there he wrote the two completed
movements (and the fragmentary
piano score of a third) of his
Symphony No. 8 in B minor; the year
was 1822, but the completed
movements would not be performed
until 1865. Schubert died in 1828, age 31. Mahler was born in Bohemia but studied at the Vienna Conservatory and, after conducting stints in Budapest and Hamburg, served as director of the Vienna Hofoper from 1897 to 1907. He composed the first three movements of the Fourth Symphony in 1899 and 1900, but the finale, with a soprano soloist, repurposes an 1892 orchestral song setting, “Das himmlische Leben” (The Heavenly Life), originally intended as part of the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn).
The two composers are linked by more than Schnitzel, Strudel und Schlag. They share a deeply personal lyrical gift that has roots in Austrian and German folk traditions. They also share a harmonic adventurism, and Mahler may have been influenced by Schubert’s methods of extending formal structures. Mahler had an unfinished symphony of his own – the magnificent 10th, which is now heard fairly often in performing editions by Deryck Cooke, among others.
Taking its cue from the child’s view of Heaven as expressed in “Das himmlische Leben,” Mahler’s Fourth is the most intimate and most delicately drawn of his symphonies (and the shortest), and it evokes naïveté in some of its orchestral effects, such as the sleigh bells at the opening. But it is far from wanting in contrapuntal sophistication and coloristic complexity. One of the many virtues of this performance was its astonishing clarity – every voice, every line could be heard in due proportion, evidence of excellent preparation in rehearsal and teamwork in performance. (The splendid acoustics of the H-E-B Performance Hall deserve some of the credit.)
Interpretively and stylistically, too, the performance was on target. In the ironic “death dance” of the second movement, concertmaster Eric Gratz got precisely the right scratchy tone and aggressive phrasing from his scordatura instrument (tuned a full tone higher than normal). The numinous third movement benefited greatly from the conductor’s beautifully supported line and from the strings’ subtle and well-executed portamento, a traditional technique too seldom honored nowadays. The Mahler Fourth has a history of fine performances by this orchestra — conducted by Christopher Wilkins in 1991, Larry Rachleff in 2008 and, most memorably, Benjamin Zander in 1998. But this performance rose above its predecessors as a triumph of both craft and feeling.
Soprano soloist Mane Galoyan brought a lovely warm glow to “Das himmlische Leben,” but none of the childlike wonder that the text invites; she was on more secure stylistic ground in the concert opener, Schubert’s setting of Ave Maria (orchestrated by Felix Weingartner).
Mr. Lang-Lessing’s extraordinary sense of line and his supple contouring of the tempo yielded a seamless, organic performance of Schubert’s “Unfinished.” The whole unfolded with a glorious sense of inevitability and gestural rightness. Schubert was not the masterful orchestrator that Mahler was, but the transparent balances and ensemble unity in this performance kept everything in focus. The finest of many memorable moments: Principal clarinet Ilya Shterenberg’s heartmelting solo amid a halo of violins in the second movement. Time stopped.
But first-class solo work was the norm throughout this concert. Special mention goes to principal oboe Paul Lueders, principal flute Mark Teplitsky, principal bassoon Sharon Kuster, English horn Jennifer Berg, bass clarinet Rodney Wollam, associate principal trumpet Daniel Taubenheim and acting principal horn Adedeji Ogunfolu, who is living proof that sometimes wonderful things are born in Washington, DC.
Mike Greenberg
San Antonio Symphony, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Mane Galoyan