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Wagner and Mahler: Gerard Schwarz, cond., Jane Eaglen, soprano, Seattle Symphony, Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 28.6.2007 (BJ)


Seven, Three, and Six: those are the numbers of the Mahler symphonies chosen to conclude the last three subscription seasons of the Seattle Symphony. No. 7 and No. 3 are both works of unconventional structure and equally unconventional expressive content, and it is a measure of music director’s stature as a pre-eminent Mahler conductor that his performances realized both of those works not only with supreme eloquence but also with a coherence they do not always seem to possess.

Prefaced on this occasion by the Prelude and “Liebestod” from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, eloquently played, and sung with heroic power by Jane Eaglen, the Sixth is, on the face of it, a very different matter from those other two symphonies. Labeled at one time “Tragic” by the composer, it stays much closer to the kind of emotional states familiar from the more lugubrious representative works of the Austro-German symphonic tradition. It is also laid out, unlike most Mahler essays in the genre, along traditional symphonic lines. There are four movements, with an exposition repeat in the opening Allegro, and only the voluminous finale goes beyond a relatively conventional structural scale. In Schwarz’s reading, moreover, the Adagio comes second and the Scherzo third–the thoroughly traditional pattern established when Mahler decided to reverse the previous Scherzo-Adagio order. (It might have been helpful for the audience if the orchestra’s annotator had troubled to inform himself of the chosen order before writing his program note.)

If, despite all this, Mahler Six nevertheless is to make its impact as a creation of thoroughly unprecedented emotional intensity, it must do so through the agency of a performance that in expressive terms is itself over the top. In this performance, from the implacable march rhythms and weirdly atmospheric cowbell tinklings of the first movement, by way of the rhythmic distortions of the Scherzo, to the nihilistic despair into which the volcanic Finale eventually collapses, Schwarz and his orchestra realized Mahler’s vision with uncompromising commitment. This was music that never for a moment let up in its emotional extremism. It was amusing to find, in a local review, the complaint that “the mass of sound often was just loud, strident, almost screaming at times,” for this is surely exactly what Mahler, with his luridly incisive orchestration, must have had in mind, and what Schwarz must have been aiming at.

The Adagio might perhaps have benefitted from a fractionally faster tempo and a touch more flexibility in its ebb and flow of tone. In every other regard, however, this was as compelling an interpretation of the Sixth as I can recall hearing, and every section of the orchestra responded to Schwarz’s unrelentingly passionate leadership with no less complete dedication. If I were to instance all the superb solos from orchestra members, I should have to name all the principal players and several of their colleagues too. But I must not omit a word of congratulation to principal trombonist Ko-Ichiro Yamamoto, whose low-brass section played the concluding tragic cortege with a solidity of tone and a clarity of intonation such as I have never before encountered in this challenging passage.

Bernard Jacobson


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