Honeck, PSO expertly address Mahler's highs and lows
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Manfred Honeck's tenure as music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been an ongoing celebration of Gustav Mahler's gripping orchestral creations. He and the orchestra are in the midst of a Mahler symphony cycle both on stage and in recording -- the multitude of microphones signified that the Japanese label Exton is again camped out at Heinz Hall.
Yet this week and weekend the concentration on Mahler took on a more human element in that May 18 marked the 100th anniversary of his death. That Mr. Honeck and the PSO put the Viennese composer's Symphony No. 5 on the program is more of a condition of how the cycle has progressed. The truth is, even after a potent performance Friday night at Heinz Hall, really any of Mahler's symphonies would fit the bill.
That's not because they sound the same, but because Mahler's symphonies embody a similar desire to express human existence in all its tattered lows and euphoric highs. That authenticity is surely one of the reasons Mahler's music has endured. I actually feel this the most after a performance ends. So often my state of mind is jolted when I exit Heinz Hall after being absorbed in the evening's program. So much classical music seems a break from the world. When I leave the hall after a Mahler concert, there is no conceptual break. His music is a continuation of life.
Mr. Honeck has already shown his hand, as it were, in how he treats Mahler: but it still amazes me. He refutes the exaggeration of slow tempos of Leonard Bernstein and others with his own exaggerations that bring out the contrasts of urbane and folk.
Friday night was no exception. Forte meant loud and fortissimo ear-splitting. Pianissimos nearly hid the music in the folds of the huge performing forces. Unrelenting anger and frustration in the first two of the five movements finally gave way to delicacy in the third and heartrending sweetness in the famous Adagio. Only in the finale did things near any sort of normalcy in Mr. Honeck's approach. His Mahler is not for everyone, but it's a crucial view of the composer that adds immensely to the readings and recordings out there.
First Published May 23, 2011 12:54 am
