(Mahler-List members can delete this now; it's already posted at our
*other* favorite site)
Leonard Slatkin and the NSO finished a three-performance stand of M6's
last night at a sold-out Kennedy Center. It was what I'd call a new-wave
M6, very much in line with the recent research of Jerry Bruck, who was
credited liberally in program notes written by Richard Freed. In other
words, Slatkin played the inner movements Andante-Scherzo, and took the
third hammerblow.
There was much more to it, of course. Slatkin started off with a very
take-charge Allegro energico, ma non troppo. It wasn't at breakneck speed
-- but powerful, purposeful, driven. At 22.18 and with an exposition
repeat, Slatkin played it faster than other "exposition repeat" versions
I have (Sanderling, 23.30; Zander, 24.45; and MTT, live last year at
24.00). Szell, at 17.45 but without a repeat, feels a bit faster;
Barbirolli, of course, is in another world entirely. We have to figure
out how to factor in the repeats so that meaningful comparisons can be
made. Maybe take the exposition repeat as a percentage of the total, then
multiply the non-repeat performances by that percentage. While I usually
prefer a slower approach, I found Slatkin's pace very effective. Brisk,
but definitely not a Levi. He gave it a palpable momentum that I found
electrifying. Once again, I was struck by how much more prominent the
snare drum rolls are in concert than on disc. They really snapped people
to attention at the start of the first theme. The Alma theme was played
without the dragging that I sometimes perceive, and the music from far
away was perfectly done, aside from the anemic cowbells. BTW, thanks
to listers' remarks, this time I was able to appreciate the fact that the
exposition repeat is not a true repeat; it starts out much softer than the
opening, then builds to the level of the introduction. Slatkin did this
beautifully, with the sense of menace growing with every increase in
volume.
Throughout the performance, I got the impression that Slatkin had really
given M6 some thought. He was right on target in the transitions, and
I felt that he was actively *managing* the music as it shifted from one
combination of sections to another, from chaos to control. Why do I say
that? Maybe it had something to do with our seats. We were flush left from
the podium, one level up, and could see Slatkin's face, mannerisms, and
cues throughout. The acoustics were fine from there, with one prominent
exception (see below).
Movement II, the Andante. This was the first time that I've heard the
Andante second. I've never even reprogrammed a disc to hear it that way,
so natural did it feel to me in third position. Given the approach
Slatkin took, I can see the logic. While this was definitely a committed
performance, it was far from a heart-on-sleeve or angst-ridden conception.
Call it negative-Barbirolli. After all, Mahler himself was so overcome by
the 6th that he toned it down, mostly, I think, by placing the Andante
second and deleting the third hammerblow. So it made perfect sense for
Slatkin to frame a non-hand-wringing M6 with the Andante second.
Appropriately, he put down his baton here and conducted the Andante just
with his hands. I'm still not ready to change my mind on this. I still
want the Andante third, but at least now I can see the logic. At 15.30,
Slatkin's Andante compares thus: Szell, 13.30; Barbirolli, 15.51; Zander,
15.21; Sanderling, 14.53; and MTT, 17.41 (check the difference between
Szell and MTT!).
There's something about seeing a performance live that is so much more
illuminating than hearing it on disc. As the various passages unfolded
throughout the orchestra, I felt I could get a better handle on the many
things that were happening. What a genius Mahler was! The Scherzo, to
which I've long nodded in agreement when hearing it described as a horror
Scherzo, was just that -- horror-inducing. For all my talk above about
Slatkin's cool approach, I have to say that he did dot a lot of i's here.
I felt he was reveling in the whole thing, really enjoying it. But yes,
at the end I was hoping to hear the Andante next. Slatkin, 12.51; Szell,
13.11; Barbirolli and MTT, 13.53; Sanderling, 12.24; Zander, 11.58.
Before the concert, my wife -- far from a Mahler fanatic but someone whose
resistance is wearing down, slowly but surely -- made the mistake of saying
yes to my question of whether she wanted to hear about the performance
issues. I told her about the inner-movement controversy, among several
other things. Not coincidentally, this was the first time in ages that
she finished dinner before I did. Afterward, she said that the flow of
Andante-Scherzo seemed fine to her.
The Finale opened with a true puff of smoke, ff statement of theme with
crushing tympani hammering out the fate motif, then the mini-dirge. At
this point I should say that the playing last night was just spectacular.
The hornist, who has nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, played his solos
without a flaw, and I heard no cracks in either of the dirges. I felt
that the NSO was on the verge of losing ensemble a couple of times, but
under Slatkin's baton they quickly brought things under control.
Where were the hammerblows? First, a word about the instrument itself.
This was a true hammer, almost a caricature of one of those carnival
things where you try to smack the weight up to the top of a scale. I
half expected the percussionist to look like Popeye. I told my wife, "His
main problem will be how to keep from looking comical." The percussionist
managed that, but there was almost no thud at all. Two things could have
been at play here. First, the target looked to be a rubber slab, so there
couldn't have been even a potential for an axe-like, wooden blow. Second,
our seats were such that the hammerer was directly between us and the
target. Maybe his body shielded some of the sound. Surely there's a
happy medium between Zander and what we heard (or didn't hear) last night.
I understand Boulez too has weakish hammerblows? The third blow was the
loudest of the three, which isn't saying much, whereas it needs to be the
most subdued of the three. Needless to say, there was no Barbirolli pause
between blows 2 and 3. But the tympani part that precedes this section by
ten seconds or so was just crushing.
Again throughout this movement, Slatkin paid close attention to the
various combinations of sections. He got the oboe and flutes to play
together at once light-heartedly and ominously. The (off-stage) church
bells, in contrast to the cowbells, were very clear and rich. We got a
kick out of watching one percussionist go from hammer near the middle of
the stage; to his normal position at the xylophone, stage right-rear; to
the off-stage-left-rear church bells. Fortissimi brought down the roof,
and tension music was eerily and perfectly played, loud enough so you
could hear everything, soft enough so that you were aware of something
awful looming around the corner. The concluding dirge was wonderful, with
Slatkin stretching it out appropriately. The final crash, telegraphed just
a bit too much for my taste, again brought down the coffin lid, and the
pizzicato concluding stroke threw on the last shovelful of dirt. The
final fate motif was, as you would expect, non-rhetorical. Slatkin, 31.28;
Szell, 28.56; Barbirolli, 32.43; Sanderling, 30.20; Zander, 31.44; and MTT,
31.10.
Total times: Slatkin, 82.07; Szell, 73.39; Sanderling, 81.07; Zander,
84.13; Barbirolli, 83.41 (don't forget, no first movement repeat here);
and MTT, 86.44.
I, for one, would look forward to hearing Slatkin/NSO do more Mahler,
though I understand that his M3 last year wasn't well received. We know
he has an interest in M10. Wonder what's next? There were lots of mikes in
evidence. Will he be recording M6? Has he signed a new recording contract?
Sidebars: 1. The coach of the percussion section in my daughter's middle
school orchestra played a few parts in M6, notably the triangle. We could
see he was taking his job with appropriate seriousness. But last week,
when I heard that he would not be at her orchestra's recital because he was
in rehearsal, I asked her: "So what's he playing? -- tympani, bass drum,
sledgehammer, triangle, whips, cowbells, or churchbells." She looked at me
as if I was nuts. Well, nothing new there.
2. At the end of the concert, the man sitting across the aisle came up to
me. "I saw you writing down times. You're obviously with the symphony."
Nope, just an enthusiast, I said. "Why do you do it?" Well, it sometimes
illuminates the differences in approach that different conductors take.
"And what did tonight's times tell you?" I couldn't answer that too well in
the time we had, but I do think the combination of rather brisk tempos and
the Scherzo-Andante switcheroo does at least show a difference in idea
between, say, Barbirolli and Slatkin. And also shows that there was much
more than a pro forma M6 at the Kennedy Center last night.
Mitch Friedfeld
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