Word: mahlers
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...skill, but it is Gatti's highly visible selfimmersion in his profession that brings him well-deserved distinction. Deemed the foremost conductor of his generation by some, the renowned Italian director had some high expectations to fulfill in his interpretation of Schubert's Symphony No. 8, (the "Unfinished") and Mahler's Symphony No. 5 on Sunday night...
...misgivings about Daniele Gatti's sense of expression were quelled with the introduction of the Mahler symphony. From the first notes of the melancholy Funeral March, Gatti was literally on his toes, straining visibly to extract as much sound as possible from his orchestra. Again, the central placement of the cello section onstage allowed for the diffusion of a remarkably pithy timbre perfectly suited to the first movement. Passages seemed to dissolve into dissonance, sliding into prolonged suspensions wherein the orchestra became a sea of reddened faces...
...next song, a slight ballad by Friedrich Rueckert (the same one who made Mahler's masterpiece possible), was the evening's first jewel. As an astute listener remarked, "Dass sie hier gewesen" (That she was here) was ravishing because Goode wove in Upshaw's calm melody among a gently insistent stream of suspended fourths. The last of the five, "Der Musensohn" (The Muses' Son, a poem by Goethe), was a vehicle more for Goode's talent than Upshaw's--his capricious part intimated one of his upcoming Brahms solos. Unfortunately, the lace of technical difficulty left him free...
When Dohnanyi came onstage after intermission, it was clear that he would conduct Mahler's first symphony without the score. That anyone could know such an immense work by heart was hard to imagine until his masterful interpretation began. A reduced version of the orchestra, mostly strings, had performed the Schubert, but now that all the musicians filled the stage Doh- nanyi was no less in control...
...introduction to the finale of the "Symphony Fantastique." The offstage trumpets and cuckoo-like clarinet were truly awesome. The strings sounded as tight and together as they do on recordings from the legendary Szell era, but much more joyous when they got to the main theme. It comes from Mahler's "Songs of a Wayfaring Lad" (the lied seemed to be the organizing principle of the whole concert) and is simply charming. Much of the pleasure of this movement is in the anticipation of the theme's return. The tempo was faster than usual, but utterly effective. All the players...