Review - Robert Spano BBC SSO Britten and Mahler

[mahler10th]

Wed March 15th 7.30pm Glasgow City Halls, Scotland
Robert Spano BBC SSO
The Programme: Britten - Serenade for tenor, horn and strings
Mahler - 5th Symphony

The Players for Britten: Andrew Kennedy - Tenor, David Pyatt - Horn

The concert opened with Brittens' Serenade. This was not something I'd heard before, but after hearing it, it is something I WILL get. The Serenade contains 8 pieces, the first and last being played solo horn on natural harmonics. Pyatt, winner of the 1988 Young Musician of the Year, brings in the Serenade with intelligence and balance. Then the Orchestra starts up and Kennedy joins in with the Pastoral. His singing is clear and he stands quite erect throughout the performance, only wobbling his head occasionally, but he's enjoying it - unfortunately enjoying it for him seems to mean staring straight ahead and only sometimes finding enough in the poetic librettos to wobble. Still, he has a fine voice, his singing is beautiful, and all is well. He ends the Sonnet with its namesake, and his voice finishes it more than satisfactorily. The last piece, an offstage horn, is played beautifully and wistfully by Pyatt to end the Serenade. Plenty of applause, but somewhat belated, Spano stood wondering if anyone knew he had finished and near shrugged his shoulders before the clapping started. My hands were sore.

Next, the main event, Mahlers 5th. The Funeral March begins, and Spano looks like he knows where he's going. Elizabeth Layton, leader of the Orchestra, looks like she loves Mahler in a dreamy way, and I near fall in love with her too in a dreamy way.

The timpani are spot on, and Robert Spano gives it hell in the second movement, making sure the Orchestra keep in synch with his expressions and body movements, fleeing from first violins to double bass to absoloutley superb trumpet by Mark O'keefe, with passion from Spanos feet upward. This is quite in order as Mahler marked the movement to be played stormy, with vehemence.

The Scherzo third movement is a real tickler, Spano gives it the earthy folky feel it deserves, and it lives up to its title scherzo (literally 'Joke'), and the triangle is heard!

The famous Adagio fourth movement comes on with the conductor paying attention to the downbeats, and a magnificent weariness is born here, the World is just too much to take in, and the Orchestra under Spano lets us know that.

Many of the themes come together for the finale, the Adagio being prominent in this performance, and it is here we can hear (where Mahlers learning from Bachs scores) a fine balance of Polophony. There are melodies here not intertwined, but bouncing off each other in a coherent way, meeting and culminating in an expression of optimism and complete joy.

Noteworthy were Mark O'Keefe on trumpet, an absoloutley spellbinding job with no silly vibrato, David Flack (Horns), Simon Johnson and Philip Weldon (great Trombones).

My only problem with the entire performance was the Brass and Woodwind being one or two decibels louder than expected - Spano gave no let up in this and there WAS some drowning going on. But then, that may be because of where I was sitting (in the cheap seats, above right of Orchestra) or the Hall acoustics - this was the only major flaw if one can call it that - it is Mahler, and Mahler liked his horns and trumpets etc to be loud as hell. Overall, it was a superb performance, one I will remember, and Radio 3 rightly have recorded it for broadcast at a later date.

Well done Spano and the BBC SSO.