SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Messiaen, Mahler: San Francisco Symphony, Myung-Whun Chung, conductor, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 24.1.2008 (HS)


As the San Francisco Symphony finishes its Mahler cycle under its music director, Michael Tilson Thomas, it should have been fascinating to hear what a conductor with very different ideas could do with the same music. Myun-Whun Chung, who appears all too seldom in these parts, took a rather gentle approach to Mahler's protean Symphony No. 1, lavishing great care and delicacy on the quieter moments but rarely achieving anything remotely exciting.

Perhaps it was carryover from the first half of the concert, Messiaen's L'ascension, with its ecstatic (and somewhat static) chorales, but Mahler's big moments failed to come off with as much point and pizzazz as we know this orchestra can produce.

The symphony started off well, as Chung drew a fine filigree of mystery in the opening octaves, taking his time to let the nature calls flit in and out organically. I sensed a holding back as the first of the quiet trumpet fanfares filtered in from offstage, and there was a satisfying moment when the lilting primary tune finally entered, as soft and swaying as a cotton skirt.

Chung's tempos continued to ebb more than flow, which took some of the drama away from the contrasting brass paragraphs to come. In fact, things derailed completely when Chung tried to rev things up for the short, frenetic outbursts at the close of the first movement. About half the orchestra never got their final notes in. Someone must have said something from the seats immediately behind him, because he turned to the audience and gave a rueful grin. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he gestured for the orchestra to play the last few measures again. That broke the tension for a while.

The scherzo was more graceful than wild, emphasizing tonal balances over dance rhythms.  The slow movement's minor-key Frère Jacques funeral march rolled out with straight-faced clarity, but the village band interjections, which always strike me (and Tilson Thomas, too) as Klezmer music, came off as bland without those extra Yiddish inflections.

The stormy opening of the finale sacrificed clarity for excitement, and then things started to wander. A few exposed trumpet bobbles took some of the sheen off generally excellent, orotund brass playing as the fanfares developed over the course of the movement. And Chung never quite found a line that pulled the disparate elements of the finale together until the rousing final pages, which finally managed to get everyone pulling in the same direction.

Chung did better overall in the Messiaen, in which he is something of a specialist. Although it's not quite in the same league as Mahler's symphonies, it was a nice idea to pair this first major orchestral work of his with Mahler's first. Messiaen was more interested in expressing religious fervor than Mahler was;  L'ascension features some of the same elements—big brass moments, long build ups and some harmonic adventurousness.

The first movement, “Majesty of Christ Requesting Glory from His Father," is an extended series of brass chorales, which wander through various levels of dissonance, occasionally landing on a triad as if entering into a clearing. Under Chung's baton, one could practically see the rays of light filtering through the trees, even if the players couldn't quite agree on where his downbeat actually was.

The middle movements, which move faster, seemed to gain some momentum before losing the thread in the finale, “Prayer of Chirst Ascending Towards His Father," which has the strings go through a sort of reflection of the first movement's brass chorales. It seemed to unravel as the music proceeded, although the sweetness of the final phrases at least brought the piece to a radiant finish.

Obviously, the orchestra was having serious problems reading Chung's conducting technique. It was one of the sloppiest performances I've heard from this orchestra in a long time.

Harvey Steiman

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