MAHLER'S FAREWELL: A LIVELY LOOK AT LIFE, DEATH 
                                              By Paul Hertelendy 
        artssf.com, the independent observer of San Francisco Bay Area music and dance 
                                                                 Week of Sept. 28-Oct. 5, 2007
                                                                  Vol. 10, No. 17
        When you see some 44 microphones over and around the symphony stage, you can anticipate a live-concert recording, a practice that the San Francisco Symphony has switched to in the Michael Tilson Thomas era.
            That entails little discomfort to patrons, apart from having to suppress coughs and sneezes for 10 minutes till a break between movements. But they’re grizzled veterans at this; much to their credit, I detected nary a slip of note Sept. 27.
            This latest go at Mahler entailed an adequate but inconsistent cast---fine for weekly concerts, but less desirable for recordings, where the product competes with the best ensembles around the world on a shrinking global turntable. Once they have recorded “Das Lied von der Erde” (1909), all the Mahler symphonies except No. 8 will be in the can or released on the in-house SFS Media label. If all goes well, "Lied" should be on the market before the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death in 2011.
             Evidently the big commercial record labels have little interest in such repertory any more, even with stars like MTT and Thomas Hampson in the trenches.
            Trenches, yes, because Gustav Mahler is about conflict and combat in a sonic sense. His deep psychological probings, his fatalism, his insecurities, and his failing health all combine to produce a music reflecting his troubled self. Here it is intensified, as the piece was completed merely two years before his death at age 50, result of a long-standing heart condition.
            And why not call this what it really is, a Symphony No. 8½, rather than “The Song of the Earth?” Attribute it to the Curse (or Jinx) of the Ninth---that 19th-century superstition about the folly of attempting to write a Ninth Symphony, ever since Beethoven not only did it better than  any one, but also died after writing it.
            This one is a solo-voice-dominated piece throughout the six movements, set to poems of Li Po (also known as Li T’ao-po) translated into German.  Its theme is pessimistic. “Dark Is Life, as Is Death,” it tells us, and turns to drink for consolation. Along the way, sunny pictures are painted of life and love, but it ends in a lengthy Farewell movement, nearly half the length of the whole work. And in the middle of the finale, the baritone falls silent for a slow, eloquent, instrumental  funeral march. 
            Mahler pours both his very rich orchestration and his melodiousness into this piece, contrasting the heroic tenor with the soothing umber qualities of the baritone, intoning “My heart awaits its hour.” Here and there a triangle or tamtam suggest the Chinese origins of these texts.
            No better lyric baritone could exceed the honeyed voice of Thomas Hampson, who is every bit as expressive in lieder evenings like this as in his fine opera career. Pity that the rich velvet of his voice can’t permanently upholster all the seats of Davies Hall with its regal fabric. His range is broad, and his command of German beyond reproach.
            Sharing duties was Stuart Skelton, a taut-voiced heroic tenor who strained in the higher register.
            MTT led the work with evident delish and dispatch, slowing where needed for maximum effect (as in the funeral march). The SFS players were back in top form, after the less-than-ideal Sept. 19 opening on the heels of the long European tour. Noteworthy solo efforts emanated from flutist  Tim Day and oboist William Bennett. 
            The concert opened with the last of Mozart’s Salzburg symphonies, No. 34, a larger-scale piece so exuberant in its outer movements as to suggest a festive opera overture.
            In light of the great music presented, quite apart from the excitement of sitting in on a recording, it was surprising to this observer that the opening concert was far from sold out. But various of the classical-music enterprises have hit a wall in (younger) audience-building, perhaps directly related to the meager amount of music education in today’s schools. Could be that some audiences today are looking more for bite-size selections, film scores, or semi-classical departures.
            Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde,” Mozart’s Symphony No. 34, MTT conducting, with Thomas Hampson, Stuart Skelton, vocalists at Davies Hall, S.F. through Sept. 29. For info: (415) 864-6000, or go  online. Broadcasts on KDFC-FM (102.1) at 8 p.m. on the second Tuesday following.

        ©Paul Hertelendy 2007
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          Paul Hertelendy has been covering the dance and modern-music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area with relish -- and a certain amount of salsa -- for years.
    These critiques appearing weekly (or sometimes semi-weekly, but never weakly) will focus on dance and new musical creativity in performance, with forays into books (by authors of the region), theater and recordings by local artists as well.
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