Irish Timeswriters review recent classical music performances in Dublin:
Staatskapelle Dresden/Harding
NCH, Dublin
Mahler - Symphony No 9
On its first visit to the National Concert Hall, one of the world's most venerated musical ensembles was under the direction of another first-time visitor, one of the world's youngest celebrated conductors.
Their meeting on that ultimate battleground of Romantic emotions, Mahler's last complete symphony, ensured that this was a concert of extremes.
British conductor Daniel Harding is a familiar guest with the Staatskapelle Dresden. His prowess is characterised by flamboyance, stamina and a communicative intensity that places no restrictions on his remarkably fluid gestures - a fusion of spontaneity and authority, of freedom and tension, that's closely akin to Mahler's fusion of ebullience and angst.
This was a notably sustained reading of the symphony. At just over half an hour, the first movement was longer than usual, although it never seemed so. The Adagio finale, however, which at just over 27 minutes ran nearly 10 minutes longer than Bruno Walter's famous 1938 recording, was conspicuously protracted.
Yet the performance was most memorable for its extraordinary definition and vividness thanks to the playing of an orchestra that tenaciously upholds a standard praised by Beethoven, Wagner and Richard Strauss.
With more numerous forces than the average symphony orchestra, and players of the highest calibre, the Staatskapelle combines uncommon massiveness with uncommon agility. The brass and percussion are majestic; the woodwinds are at once a panoply of distinctive soloists and a seamlessly integrated choir that's never obscured by the luxuriant weight of the strings.
Thus, the ineffable notions that possessed the death-conscious Mahler - the fantastical harmonies, the bizarre counterpoints - all sounded with an absolute sense of conviction and rectitude. - Andrew Johnstone
Masin, Buicke, RTÉ NSO/Markson
NCH, Dublin
Mozart - Violin Concerto No 5, K 219
Mahler - Symphony No 4
It was announced from the platform that Gerhard Markson, principal conductor of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, had been hit with a bug during the afternoon. Rather than withdraw completely, he decided to conserve the energy needed for Mahler's hour-long Symphony No 4 in the second half by passing the baton to the orchestra's assistant conductor for the Mozart concerto in the first.
The solution rescued Mahler but stranded two young performers in difficult circumstances in the Mozart.
Assistant conductor Gavin Moloney was valiant stepping into the breach but found it hard to fill Markson's shoes at such horribly short notice. His courage did not translate easily into expressive leadership so that the playing lacked involvement.
This made things awkward for the soloist, Dutch-born but Dublin-raised violinist Gwendolyn Masin, who found herself in a concerto in which the essential to-and-fro dynamic between soloist and orchestra was largely missing.
She might have seized the performance by the scruff of the neck, but this time it just wasn't to be. That said, there was much to enjoy in her own playing.
If you had the flu and had to conduct one of Mahler's 10 symphonies, No. 4 would probably be the best choice. It's comparatively short. And although it requires what's still a very large orchestra, this is more for the possibilities of hearing material in many different sonorities rather than for might.
This multi-layered aspect of Markson's performance came across so well as to make you forget that he was sick.
The Fourth Symphony is also Mahler's least aggressive, and its various themes of joy, laughter and beauty were all warmly communicated, notably in the gentle final movement when Mairead Buicke's light soprano affirmed a human presence. - Michael Dungan
