The New York Times
Nostalgia and Cries of Anguish From the Sinking Mahler - March 4, 2002
Posted: 2002-08-26 17:44:22
March 4, 2002, Monday
New York Times
THE ARTS/CULTURAL DESK
MUSIC REVIEW;
Nostalgia and Cries of Anguish From the Sinking Mahler
By ALLAN KOZINN
The Boston Philharmonic, founded by Benjamin Zander in 1979, has a peculiar makeup, with professional musicians, music students and amateurs mingling behind the stands. But Mr. Zander, a British conductor who has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory for 35 years, seems able to inspire his players to give performances in which the amateurs work at a fully professional level.
Both in Boston and in New York, which he regularly visits with his orchestra, Mr. Zander has built a cult following, and the release of a series of recordings in recent years, both with this Boston orchestra and the Philharmonia of London, is bound to help that following grow. For one thing, his readings are original and often provocative. For another, he is an inveterate and persuasive explainer: several of his recordings include bonus discs on which he explains his interpretations and the reasoning behind them, both philosophical and technical, with sideline comments on the niceties of conducting technique as well.
Mahler has long been Mr. Zander's principal specialty, and on Saturday evening he brought his Boston orchestra to Carnegie Hall to explore his thoughts on the Ninth Symphony. As one might expect, this supremely emotional work, composed when Mahler knew his remaining days were few, drew a performance from Mr. Zander in which both sweeping gesture and delicate nuance were given careful attention.
The outer movements, Mahler's most direct and anguished cries from the heart, were taken at expansive but flexible tempos. In the opening movement, the stretches of introspective pathos and lyrical flights of nostalgia, all put forth with well-judged balances and ample dynamic shaping, were as powerful in their way as the frantic explosions of despair that make up the movement's heart. And the sense of life ebbing away in the lush string writing of the finale could hardly have been made more palpable. Among the finer touches here were the distinctions Mr. Zander made between Mahler's levels of pianissimo.
Set between these two immense emotional pillars, the second movement, with its evocations of Viennese dance music, and the third-movement Rondo-Burleske are often undervalued. Both demand virtuosity and bright coloration, and Mr. Zander's readings bristled with energy and showed off the solidity of his brass sections and his players' ability to maintain a superbly balanced and polished ensemble at brisk speeds. But he did not let virtuosity eclipse the sense of mortal terror that Mahler wrote into these deceptively muscular textures.
There was some tentativeness in the orchestra's performance of the first few pages, but the players quickly settled down and gave a performance in which every department played admirably, with particularly beautiful solo contributions from several of the principals.
Mr. Zander and his orchestra are also playing a free concert at Carnegie Hall tonight. The program, called "Classical Fever," includes works by Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Elgar, and is meant to be an introduction for newcomers to classical music.
Published: 03 - 04 - 2002 , Late Edition - Final , Section E , Column 1 , Page 1
