As is always the case with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Ryman Healthcare Galas, the opening performance of Mahler’s Symphony #2 – “Resurrection” at Hamer Hall last night was a packed affair.
Indeed, an audience of this size only befits a work of the scale and magnitude of Mahler’s Second, a gigantic piece for orchestra and chorus that sets to answer the questions of death, reincarnation and everything in-between.
It was a performance of which I had already seen some of the inner workings, having attended MSO Principal Conductor Jaime Martín’s open rehearsal only a few days prior.
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Of course, that was only a brief insight into the full, thunderous enormity of the symphony once completed with the presence of the MSO Chorus.
Filling the upper wings on either side of the stage, as well as two rows of male singers at the very back, their imposing, tense presence was like that of the shark in Jaws – you know it’s there and you are just waiting in coiled anticipation for it to be unleashed.
And what a musical firestorm it was, truly an experience in sound so vast and imposing as to push one into the very back of their seat. The final applause – a well-deserved, immediate standing ovation that lasted a full five minutes – could only distantly echo the stunning force and volume of the orchestra-chorus finale.
Oftentimes, when attending the performance of a really good orchestra, there is a sense of effortlessness that underlines the performers’ skill and expertise.
In contrast, last night’s performance looked profoundly difficult, because it was – there is nothing lightweight about Mahler – and that is what underlined the excellence of the MSO’s performance.
It was a bravura classical concert, every ounce the universe-splitting symphony that the reputation of Mahler #2 has steadfastly held across the past century.
Indeed, its magnitude was so all-encompassing that we heard no other piece on last night’s programme: the entire evening was reserved for this single start-to-finish odyssey, through one of the western canon’s most respected and epic works.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra paid heed to that legacy with a heroic performance under the baton of Jaime Martín.
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