MAHLER 4 LIVE! / Orchestra of the Music Makers / Review

MAHLER 4 LIVE!

Orchestra of the Music Makers

Esplanade Concert Hall

An edited version of this review was published in The Straits Times on 5 May 2021 with the title "A message of hope for an uncertain time".

 

It has been several years time since audiences in Singapore witnessed a performance of a Gustav Mahler symphony, the last being Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s rendition of the Second Symphony led by Shui Lan in January 2019. The Covid pandemic and circuit breaker has not helped, given the Austrian composer’s propensity for celestial lengths and large orchestras. But trust the Orchestra of Music Makers (OMM), Mahler specialist among local ensembles, to wangle three performances of his Fourth Symphony this weekend.

 

The Fourth is Mahler’s shortest and most lightly orchestrated symphony but does one really care? This is still Mahler, and any performance represented pandemic gold. And what about social distancing measures that limited groups to a maximum of 30 onstage performers? Not a problem, since German conductor Klaus Simon’s 2007 chamber arrangement of the symphony just required 23 players led by young  conductor Seow Yibin to accomplish.   

 

It was with these constraints that this mini-miracle transpired, much in the 1920s Viennese spirit of Arnold Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances, which undertook chamber readings of large orchestral works in intimate settings. Simon’s economical orchestration unusually included the accordion (played by Syafiqah ‘Adha Sallehin) and piano (Michael Huang) to support a small group of strings, winds (one person to a part) and two percussionists. Instead of being overawed, these forces worked like a charm.

 

Tinkling of sleigh bells opened the symphony with feathery lightness, and smooth strings later took over in establishing the first movement’s thematic and melodic interest. It was to conductor Seow’s credit that the pacing did not lag, and there were pivotal moments which piqued the ears, such as Miao Kaiwen’s clarinet solo which quoted the funereal trumpet call of Mahler’s next symphony, the tumultuous Fifth.

 

It was concertmaster Zhao Tian who starred in the second movement by alternating between two violins. One was tuned a tone higher to suggest “Death playing the fiddle”, thus provided an unnerving and somewhat macabre vibe to a seemingly innocuous Scherzo. The slow movement was the symphony’s heart, characterised by an ebb and flow of emotion that was truly moving. Again, it was the strings that did the heavy tugging.

 

The icing on the cake came when soprano Teng Xiang Ting, dressed in a blood red gown, emerged onstage to sing the finale’s strophic song Das Himmlischer Leben (The Heavenly Life). Its words, from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn) by Arnim and Brentano, paint a child’s innocent vision of paradise. Her German was idiomatic and the depth of feeling engendered real and unforced, providing a blissful close to the symphony’s mere 55 minutes.

    

There were two rather apt vocal encores, first the satirical and comedic song Lob Des Hohen Verstandes (Praise Of Lofty Intellect), another Mahler setting on Wunderhorn songs, also quoted in his Fifth Symphony. Next, Richard Strauss’ Morgen! (Tomorrow!), revealed pure beauty in both concertmaster Zhao’s solo violin introduction and Teng’s entreaties. Its words, “Tomorrow the sun will shine again... and the stillness of happiness will sink upon us,” provide comfort and hope for an uncertain future.