NEXT Thursday, Vasily Petrenko completes the cycle of Mahler symphonies with the 9th, echoing the achievement of Sir Charles Groves nearly half a century ago. On that occasion, Hope Street audiences had the privilege of hearing the nine symphonies for the first time in this country – another first for Liverpool.
It could be argued that this is No.10 because the song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde, which preceded it, is also a symphony in form, and so No.9 should be No.10. Perhaps this was Mahler’s way of avoiding a direct confrontation with the composers’ great hurdle, of composing a symphony in the shadow of Beethoven’s masterpiece.
Mahler wrote the work in one creative burst during the summer of 1909, two years before his death. He was staying at his summer lakeside residence, after a rocky period in his marriage. Alma had strayed, but tensions had abated and she was taking the waters at a spa to cool her spirits.
The weather that summer was awful, with winds and pouring rain, and Mahler had to contend with foregoing his usual walks, with noisy neighbours and unwanted visitors, one of them the unwelcome former chairman of the New York Philharmonic of which Mahler was now the conductor. He did, however, have the pleasure of a visit by Richard Strauss and by the critic, Julius Korngold, and his brilliant son, Erich.
The composer had already been told he had a serious heart ailment, but the symphony is more about the human condition than a personal reflection. To suggest that the shadow of death hangs over it is untrue, as he was very fit and just about to embark on a long season of 46 concerts in the USA. The work was not performed until 1912, a year after his death, and puzzled both critics and audiences, as it was so different. Admittedly, Tchaikovsky had written a symphony with a slow movement as the finale, but Mahler both started and ended with one, the two quick movements coming in between. It was conducted by his pupil Bruno Walter, who also directed it at a public concert in the Musikverein on January 16, 1938. That performance was recorded by the veteran Fred Gaisberg for HMV and turned out to be a historical document. Within days, Bruno Walter and several of the leading members of the orchestra had fled from Vienna at the approach of the Nazis.
It is interesting to note that Walter completed the work in around 70 minutes whereas, 44 years later in a live concert recorded in Berlin, Herbert von Karajan spanned 84 minutes in what is now regarded as one of his finest achievements. Libor Pesek, in his recording with the RLPO, took even longer. Now it’s Vasily who sets the pace.
