Mahler's Ninth Symphony should not be performed in public.

You may have better luck; I never heard a live performance of the Ninth
without audience noise ruining the finale.  It's simply impossible to
filter out the coughs and the multiplicity of sound around you as the
Adagio (after 90 minutes of preparation for this moment) dissolves into
silence.

More than just irritation, the *loss* has never been more intensely felt as
this afternoon, at a very special concert in Davies Hall.  Michael Tilson
Thomas conducted a matinee performance of the Ninth, the first in a series
of four concerts on the 26th anniversary of his first appearance with the
San Francisco Symphony.  To make the occasion even more poignant, the debut
in January, 1974, for the then 29-year-old was also with the Mahler Ninth.

And yet, none of that matters in comparison with the here-and-now of
inspired, in large part magnificent work today by MTT and a fired-up
orchestra taking infinite care with the concluding pianissimi of the Adagio
to coughs, fidgeting, and one enormous sneeze about 10 bars from the end.
What may work for Kodaly's "Hary" doesn't for Mahler's pppp.

One tries to get over unfortunate happenings like this, but it's very
hard today when everything was moving in the right direction.  "Audience
participation" was worse than an anticlimax; it was throwing away an
enormous, towering buildup.

Although not quite on par with MTT's "perfect" Mahler Fifth a couple of
years ago, this was a remarkable performance.  From the opening bars --
hesitating, heavy, but clearly articulated, "speaking" from the heart --
the Andante was all of one piece.  The tempo was exactly right, neither
ponderous nor insecurely rushing, and the music quickly built to a violent
climax, then calming in volume but not in intensity.

First violins, woodwinds, the brass, concertmaster Mark Volkert, principal
violist Geraldine Walther especially, cellists Michael Grebanier and Peter
Wyrick, timpanist David Herbert have all done some of their best work in
memory.

The rakish, roguish quality of the Laendler, the rough vitality of
the Rondo came through clearly and well, with only a slight (perhaps
inevitable) slackening of intensity, but the Adagio built a bridge back
to the beginning.

MTT shaped the music throughout with an appealing combination of control
and encouragement for individual "breathing" by the instruments.  He also
succeeds where the otherwise superb Helmuth Rilling fails in playing
Mahler:  MTT allows free expression of the fear and rage in the ugly,
spastic, "out-of-control" portions of the music.

The work was moving to its inevitable, magnificent
conclusion when...

Janos Gereben/SF
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