Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand

You have never experienced music like this! Yannick Nezet-Seguin and more than 400 singers and musicians at the top of their game ripped the ceiling off the Kimmel Center and probably damaged a few eardrums this weekend with Mahler’s monumental 8^th Symphony in E flat, the “Symphony of a Thousand.” This Philadelphia Orchestra performance needs to be measured in G-force, an emotional and intellectual roller coaster that teeters on a tightrope between ecstasy and hysteria, but always contained just enough by Mahler’s commanding intelligence to keep from slipping into madness.
 
There is no describing the power, sensitivity, range, and spiritual oomph of this soaring, staggering, whispering, cajoling, and ultimately triumphant symphony. Yannick opted for an intermission between the work’s two very different movements, the first a “Veni creator spiritus,” in Latin, a hymn to the creative spirit of the universe, followed by the closing scene from Goethe’s Faust in which corrupt man is redeemed through the love of woman. One of my religion professors at Drew University once said that there is no force to equal religion mixed with sex. He could have added music to the mix.

The Kimmel Center, that beautiful, magnificent venue, showcasing performers on the stage as the precious jewels they are, was the perfect venue for this massive experience. Against the soaring organ pipes, the text of each movement appeared in translation, offering insight and a tie to safety, like that steel tether that keeps Matt Damon from flying out into space in The Martian.

Because of my last-minute decision to attend, I had the choice of three tickets, and chose one in the middle of Row D. It turned out that Row D for this performance was the first row because the orchestra appropriated Rows A through C plus half the balconies behind the stage for its expanded forces. As a result, I nestled under Yannick’s left elbow, a few feet from the man himself, throughout the 90-minute performance, and had an up-close-and-personal view of Concertmaster David Kim’s impeccable violin technique in several ethereal solos. Sitting virtually in the orchestra has its advantages, though I felt I missed a good visual grasp of the massive forces beyond the conductor, invisible to those of us in “the pit.”  

I have to say, though, that the sheer volume of sound was something I have not experienced since hearing Jon Leifs’ Hekla with the Bose turned way up, some I do not recommend for the faint of hearing. Knowing what to expect, having once sat briefly beside a Kimmel organ pipe, I stopped at the CVS behind the Kimmel Center and bought a pair of Earplanes (plugs) which helped avert an otherwise unavoidable case of tinnitus. 

How can such beauty exist? In between gasps of delight by myself and, yes, others in proximity, I was able to scrawl a few notes for this blog. Mahler’s masterful skill as a composer is evident in tremendous vocal and instrumental writing in this work. For just one example, after the almost painfully loud “Drive the enemy far from us” section, there is a complex instrumental fugue about 25 minutes into the first movement, short but intense. Another note: the slow opening of the second movement, which suggests a mysterious garden, plays pizzicato celli against shimmering violins, soon crowned by a halo of woodwinds, a subtle and beguiling effect much needed given the fireworks to come. 

The text from Goethe is a bit archaic, I’m sorry to say, not only for modern audiences but even for a 20^th century man like Mahler, but anyone used to Goethe-speak and the archetypal language of classic Catholic theology shouldn’t be put off by it.  There’s a great German-English PDF of the second movement text at www.naxos.com which is worth reading through.  But let’s not get bogged down in textual analysis. This is music. It’s about redemption. It is redemption.

The Symphony of a Thousand swells to an inexorably ecstatic conclusion, making many listeners, I am sure, recall the great Resurrection Symphony, Mahler’s Second, an impressive redemption “two-fer” by one of Austria’s greatest Jewish composers. (Interesting letter to the editor on Mahler’s religion: http://tinyurl.com/jcabldn )

I was blown away by Nezet-Seguin’s interpretation and, let’s face it, sheer physical stamina, and the great work of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, Choral Arts Society of Washington, American Boychoir, and half dozen top-flight vocal soloists with unerring technique and passion..
 
To twist the words of Dylan Thomas, “Rave, rave, for the shining of the light,” the light of music illuminating the dark dusty corners of our hearts and releasing our souls. Great concert, Philadelphia Orchestra, March 13, 2016.

(Etching of Gustav Mahler by Emil Orlik)