Top shelf Mahler from Sydney Symphony

When it comes to Mahler, Sydney Symphony Orchestra continues to show that is up there with the best.

David Robertson, artistic director and chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

• Song and dance man Bill Murray
• DG marks 120 years of mellow Yellow
• Lizsania shows plenty of pluck
• Long-awaited return of a maestro

Under Vladimir Ashkenazy’s stewardship as chief conductor, Sydney Symphony Orchestra showed itself to be the equal of international bands when it came to the monumental symphonies of Gustav Mahler with a landmark complete cycle which ran over two seasons.

Ashkenazy’s successor David Robertson has tapped into this rich resource judiciously with glowing performances of the massive Resurrection (2016) and the Third (2017) and now he has brought his characteristic flair, energy and fine judgment to the Fifth symphony in a gala concert to mark the end of the 2018 season.

This is the most revised work of all the cycle, Mahler reorchestrating it after unsatisfactory early performances. It is also perhaps the best known of the nine finished symphonies, if only for the gorgeous Adagietto love poem to his wife Alma, which became popular after Dirk Bogarde was featured expiring in a beach deck chair in Luchino Visconti’s film Death In Venice.

Robertson and his forces gave a five-star revelatory performance, and special mention must go to Ben Jacks, who sat centre stage with the violas for the third movement while his solo french horn wove fanfares into the scherzo, earning him the loudest ovation of the night.

BAN

As a 10-year-old in 1907 Erich Korngold played some of his compositions to Gustav Mahler who declared him to be a genius. Three years later his ballet pantomime The Snowman was premiered at a Viennese opera house.

But with the rise of the Nazis and the ban on Jewish performers he had to leave behind his successful career in Austria and move to America where he became the father of film music.

And there lies the rub. “Serious” music critics no longer took him seriously, and despite his great gift for setting a mood, his melodic sweep and evocative harmonies that he inherited from Mahler and Richard Strauss, he found it difficult to compromise and his music was heard less and less in the concert hall.

Music conceived in the heart and not constructed on paper

In recent years there has been a revival, however, and Korngold now takes his rightful place with respected late Romantics, thanks to some beautifully composed works like his violin concerto, which was played with consummate skill and charm by French virtuoso Renaud Capucon in the opening half.

French violinist Renaud Capucon performed Erich Korngold’s concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

The concert had burst into life with Dvorak’s blazing Carnival Overture beforehand, so the lush and broad weaving lines of the Korngold made for a welcome change of temperature.

In three movements, Korngold works in music from some of his film scores — including Anthony Adverse and The Prince and the Pauper — but this is far more than a rehash, living up to the composer’s principles of “music conceived in the heart and not constructed on paper”.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: Sydney Symphony Orchestra Mahler 5

● WHERE: Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

● WHEN: Friday, November 16