ZANDER SETS A MAHLER BENCHMARK
Ellen Pfeifer, Globe Correspondent Date: November 22, 2002 Page: C20 Section: Arts
Posted: 2002-11-27 12:15:28
CAMBRIDGE - Benjamin Zander and the Boston Philharmonic have given many memorable Mahler performances over the years. But their collaboration on the Third Symphony this week may well represent their most profound realization and flawless execution of any of the works by the great Viennese symphonist.
The first of three performances, Thursday's concert featured Zanders's illustrated discussion of the symphony, under the Bose Discovery Series. Because there was only one work and no intermission, the live program notes preceded the performance, rather than threading through it.
Zander had further decided not to interrupt the flow of movements with talk - a wise choice that allowed the full impact of the work to be felt. Addressing himself particularly to the Boston Boy Choir, which was ensconced in the balcony stage left, Zander pointed out that the Third Symphony is the largest work in the repertory. Given its first performance 100 years ago, the six-movement, 90-minute Nature Symphony traces a cosmic journey from impenetrable, inert matter up through the chain of creation to God and divine love.
Finally, the concert got under way and there wasn't a false step anywhere. The horns offered their bold, heroic announcements; was this Mahler's endorsement of the Big Bang theory of creation? There was no time to consider the question as Zander swept the listener away in a performance of great elan, vitality, and variety.
The middle movements presented wonderful landscape painting with exquisite woodwinds.
In the third movement, Jeffrey Work provided the celestial offstage post-horn solo. In the fourth movement, mezzo-soprano Jane Struss sang the mysterious and portentous text by Nietzsche with sibylline authority and liquid tone. The women of the Chorus Pro Musica and the Boston Boy Choir described the angelic life in heaven with bell-like sonorities.
In the finale, Zander chose the exact tempo to suggest both movement and the timelessness of eternity. Here everyone bent to their task with the greatest intensity, from the string players to the brass chorale to the impassioned flute soloist. This was music-making of affirmation and faith.
