A very exciting evening last Saturday night; hearing, (seeing), one of my
favorite Mahler symphonies done live for the first time(!) with MTT and the
SFO.

No one was able to out-cough the finale, though I saw a suspicious group
before the concert, inhaling dust and pollen, examining scores, and marking
all the grand pauses and soft sections in yellow pencil while giggling to
themselves...(they found plenty of time to be annoying elsewhere in the
symphony).

The symphony went much like MTT's recording with the London--IMHO, an
impatient tour-guide through the nocturnal first mov't, which is fine, but
a little frustrating for me during the beautiful and mysterious central
section.  (The poor tenor-horn soloist cracked his second note; otherwise,
the brass were flawless and spirited throughout.) Extroverted sections were
thrilling, and I'm beginning to think that these are the moments are when
MTT is at his best.

The Fifth mov't was exhilarating--to see a symphony play such music
helped bring out a lot of humor missed in recording--the section parodying
"Turkish" music, popular at the time I suppose, came off particularly well
with one of the percussionists awkwardly playing an old-style bass drum
w/cymbal attached.  An unintentionally humorous, (and distracting), moment
came at the very end of the symphony: How does one muffle all those
cowbells within the couple of measures that close the symphony? SF's
percussionist dramatically threw a big blanket over the whole lot, and
then gathered them all in his arms as if a wayward cow were still attached.

John Smyth
Sacramento, CA
http://facelink.com/J66560