The huge orchestral line-up really filled the podium of the Isarphilharmonie to the last centimeter. Gustav Mahler’s sixth symphony, called “the tragic one” because of its march-like relentlessness in the first movement, its bitter sarcasm in the scherzo and its monstrous collapses in the powerful finale, needs the enormous instruments to convey all the moods and upsets, massive and quiet threats, hasty pseudo-solutions and then to create catastrophic upheavals and crashes in an incredible variety of timbres. The BR Symphony Orchestra experienced the symphonic colossus with the highest intensity because the new chief conductor, Sir Simon Rattle, plunged into the crevices and chasms of Mahler’s mountain of sound with a fire and a passion that gripped everyone on the podium and in the hall right up to the last note.
Once again it was possible to experience what “this shabby appearance, the conductor”, as Sergiu Celibidache once put it mockingly, referring to himself, can achieve and mean when really, as here, Simon Rattle, who conducts from memory, is more impressive and more impressive Blessed with presence and wonderful transference skills, he faces the physically and psychologically unheard of demands of such a mammoth work.
Rattle didn’t just lead a great orchestra, but from the very first beat he created this wild, wild (according to Mahler’s instruction) music, in which the most diverse atmospheric and instrumental layers are pushed on top of each other and new faces, landscapes and figures are constantly emerging. Just a moment ago, the march was still hard, but suddenly bright sound spaces open up, which are immediately shattered to reveal a distant landscape of herd bells and the most delicate webs of sound. Wonderfully pure horn solos (!) awaken a longing for beauty, but then the marching drum starts moving again. Rattle staged an instrumental theater that was overwhelming in the best sense, in which the famous two hammer blows in the finale were indeed devastating.
Before Mahler, there was a light, airy, funny and charming commissioned work by the composer Betsy Jolas. She also uses the giant orchestra, but not to frighten and crush, but rather to create chimes of the most sophisticated kind, confidently performed by Rattle and his friends. At the end there was a huge ovation for a fantastic performance by the great Sir Simon and his great musicians.