Mahler: The New Beethoven?

There seems to have been a glut of Beethoven symphonies in London over this last couple of weeks, what with the Gewandhaus cycle and then the John Eliot Gardiner concert on Wednesday. But didn't there used to be Beethoven concerts at level of regularity all the time?

I've a theory: Mahler is the new Beethoven. So period instrument orchestras come along in the 1980s, challenging the symphony orchestras' hegemony over Beethoven. By the late 90s, it has become deeply unfashionable, in London at least, to perform Beethoven on anything apart from supposedly 'authentic' instruments. So what do the big orchestras do? They find another Beethoven, but one who lived a hundred years later, giving them a head start of a couple of years before the period bands catch up.

If you've got an orchestra of 80-90, in makes sense to base your repertoire around a composer who actually wrote for those sorts of forces. One who will keep the percussion section busy and show off the volume the brass section are capable of.

It started with Mahler 2, which is definitely the Beethoven 9 of today. Since the 80s it has been the piece to open concert halls and to celebrate orchestras' anniversaries. It has therefore taken over many, although perhaps not all, of the Ninth's many functions. And Mahler 4 is the new Beethoven 6 – the cheery one. Mahler 5 the Eroica, the one that gets played for its slow movement. Mahler 6 the new Beethoven 5, fate and tragedy two sides of the same coin. And Mahler 7 is the new Beethoven 8, the strange one between two uncontested masterpieces that gets wheeled out now and then for curiosity’s sake.

In a way, it's bad luck for Shostakovich. He too wrote effective large-scale substitutes for the Beethoven symphonies. He was fulfilling that role very well until everything became Mahler about five years ago. None of these composers is seriously under-represented in the schedules these days, but lets hope that when the double Mahler anniversary is over we can get a bit more balance among these symphonic masters.

LPO, Kavakos, Wildner: Szymanowski, Mahler

Szymanowski, Mahler: Leonidas Kavakos, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Johannes Wildner, Royal Festival Hall, London, 14.01.11

Szymanowski: Violin Concerto no.2

Mahler: Symphony No.6

Leonidas Kavakos violin

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Johannes Wildner conductor

According to the programme, Jaap van Zweden had intended to include the third hammer blow of fate in the finale of Mahler's Sixth Symphony. That may explain why he ended up 'indisposed' for the event (although flu was the official explanation), to be replaced by Johannes Wildner. And guess what, Wildner left it out! Well, there's no point in tempting the fates, especially when they've already struck once. To Wildner's credit, this was the only aspect of the concert that he played safe, and given that he was a last minute stand-in, he made an impressive job of putting his own stamp on the symphony.

But before that came Szymanowski's Second Violin Concerto, and how Wildner could pick up the baton and conduct that at a moment's notice I'll never know. It is a virtuoso piece for everybody, soloist, orchestra and conductor alike. In many ways, it is the ideal piece for Leonidas Kavakos. He is a player with a lot of sound. Or rather, he is a player who can project across a large orchestra without reducing the sophistication or the timbral variety of his sound. Szymanowski asks a lot of the soloist, there are jumps all around the instrument's range, extended passages of double stopping, instant changes of tempo and mood, and above all an orchestral part that almost always seems to be fighting against the violin. Kavakos handled all these challenges expertly, and produced a performance that could win round even the most sceptical of Szymanowski sceptics. The music flirts constantly with playing styles that evoke folk fiddling, and in less disciplined hands that could sound trite in the extreme. But Kavakos knows where to find the real music in this score, and he has an uncanny ability to make almost every phrase sound as compositionally proficient as Bartok. It's not, of course, but that's easy to forget when you're immersed in that warm rich string sound. And on one final note of praise, the intonation was perfect throughout, which given the long, extended passages of double stopping in strange registers is an astonishing achievement.

Although Jaap van Zweden was not there in body, his presence was felt in the programme for the evening, and the coupling of the Szymanowski Concerto with Mahler's Sixth Symphony was an inspired move. Both are based on lush, saturated textures from a huge orchestra, but the concerto is more modest in scope, providing the ideal warm up for the main event.

Quite how much time Wildner had had in front of the orchestra before the concert was difficult to say. His last minute substitution showed only in a few moments of uncertainty. The last few bars of the Szymanowski, for example, didn't quite have the punch that the score clearly intended, and there were a few moments in the inner movements of the symphony where the wind soloists were clearly expecting a change of tempo that didn't happen. But apart from that, the conductor really made the concert, and the symphony in particular, his own. The greatest strength of his interpretation was the relentless drive of the outer movements. The first movement was slightly faster than usual, and with slightly less rubato, making the whole experience appropriately harrowing. The scherzo came second, and achieved some impressive aggression though its switching mercilessly between the driving rhythms and the calm interludes. If I've one criticism of Wildner's reading, it is his lack of a middle ground between the two. The loud, insistent music in the outer movements was great, as were the calm interludes, but Mahler does write transitions between them, they usually only last a few bars, but Wildner steam rollered most of them in order to present the following section as a surprise. They are shock tactics basically, and after a while it loses its impact.

All was forgiven though in the finale, which was presented with all the intensity you could want. The orchestra excelled themselves here, ensuring clarity in every tutti texture, no matter how dense or heavily scored. Special mention should go to the soloists on: tuba, horn, cor anglais (in the third movement), and violin, all of whom excelled. I wasn't too impressed with the sound of the hammer blows, and perhaps the LPO's piece of staging was designed with the old Festival Hall acoustic in mind. The livelier, more resonant sound in the hall now really needs something with more punch.

An impressive evening though, and with an unlikely star at the podium. Last minute stand-ins are an all too regular occurrence for every orchestra, but to find a man at a few hours notice willing and able to conduct a programme like this, and to make such an impressive job of it, that's a very rare achievement indeed.

Gavin Dixon

Gustav Mahler: his SACD time will come?

The Mahler anniversary bonanza of 2010-11 (that’s 150th birthday followed by centenary of death) seems of be off to a quiet start, but I can’t help the feeling that we will have had more than our fill of the man 24 months from now. I say that as a passionate Mahlerian myself, but one who is struggling to think what else the orchestras of the world can possibly do with his work, having spent the last 20 years or so more than making amends for their previous neglect.

One thing they could do is fill the gaps in the composer’s SACD discography. His are symphonies that make great showpieces for recording technology, and just as the composer’s centenary in 1960 ushered in the era of stereo recordings of his work, so the 150th looks set to mark the start of the SACD era of Mahler recordings. Or so I hope. Could it be, in years to come, that folks look back on these years and think first and foremost of the David Zinman cycle with the Tonhalle? He is my top choice among the current Mahler heavyweights, but perhaps history will judge him too mainstream. Mariss Jansons could yet become the Mahlerian of our times, although on the evidence of his recent BRSO 7th Symphony recording, his interpretations are likely to remain on the peripheries for some time yet, if only for their bold originality. Then, of course, there is Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. It is unlikely that they are going to get as far as a full symphony cycle in the near future, but it is a tantalising idea. I have to say that I am itching to invest in one or all of these propositions, but perhaps I’d better wait until the end of next year and see what, if anything, the industry has up its sleeve.