Mahler and Schubert: Petra Lang (mezzo soprano), Nikolai Schukoff (tenor), London Philharmonic Orchestra, Christoph Eschenbach (conductor), Royal Festival Hall London 13.4.2008 (JPr)


This concert undoubtedly benefited from a late change of advertised soloist (more about this later) and I was very optimistic that it would be a good night for all of us in the packed Royal Festival Hall. The omens were auspicious with a masterly dissection by Christoph Eschenbach and the London Philharmonic Orchestra of Schubert’s Eighth – the Unfinished – Symphony.

There was a time in the early days of my regular concert-going that I heard this work repeatedly but now it was good to come back to it after a gap of several years. It was with this work that Schubert revealed himself as a symphonic genius. Although it was probably sketched out to be a complete four movement symphony we are left with only the two wondrous ones. There are many intensely dramatic passages contrasted by lovely moments of sublime cheerfulness.

Yet why was it ‘unfinished’? It is dedicated to Graz’s Musikverein who had made Schubert an honorary member. There is an idea that the composer might have thought that his first two movements were so good he felt he was unable to go any further with the composition and they were enough. Also in 1822 when he was writing it,  he was coping with the effects of venereal disease for the first time making it hard to continue, though he did live a further six years. Another suggestion is that Schubert used the finale as an entr'acte for his incidental music to Rosamunde. Whatever the reason,  also in the back of Schubert’s mind may have been the fact that whatever he wrote could never be performed as he would have wanted it by any orchestra available in his lifetime. Therefore he produced a version for four-hands at one piano so that  he could perform it himself,together with his brother.

The music is undoubtedly some of the most well-loved and familiar with its B minor key which juxtaposes very dark-toned despair with an on-going optimistic search for tranquil beauty. Christoph Eschenbach’s dour and starkly Teutonic podium manner belies the gentle mischievous humour that l found he has when I was privileged to talk briefly to him after the concert. His concentration is total and the respect that the excellent musicians in front of him gave to his every gesture was plain to see. He emphasised the Symphony’s structure and lyricism. The tone of the woodwind throughout was refulgent and matched to this was some secure horn playing. The Allegro moderato had an almost Brucknerian angst to it while the Andante con moto seemed by comparison almost Mendelssohnian in its delicate counterpoint and lyricism. 

Before ending up in Mahler’s great song-symphony,  the text of Das Lied von der Erde underwent extensive evolution. Original Chinese poems were first independently translated into French by Judith Gautier (Richard Wagner’s ‘muse’ when he wrote Parsifal) and Le Marquis D'Hervey-Saint-Denys. This version was then translated by Hans Heilman into German and then Hans Bethge played ‘fast and loose’ with it to create his own chinoiserie anthology The Chinese Flute (using the term Nachdichtungen or ‘Paraphase poems’). From Bethge’s Die chinesische Flöte - Nachdichtungen chinesischer Lyrik, Mahler chose seven that at the time seemed suitable for the setting of Das Lied von der Erde, making some further changes to adapt the texts for his inspired symphonic songs. Mahler lived in superstitious fear of the supposedly fatal consequence of composing a ninth symphony so he never gave this particular work a number. The ‘curse’ got him eventually of course,  as ultimately his Ninth Symphony was the last he completed in full and he never heard these two compositions given their first performances. 2008 marks the 100th anniversary of Mahler conceiving the idea for ‘The Song of the Earth’. If he was looking down at this performance I think he would have been pleased with what he heard!

Perhaps too late to influence those who might have wanted to be there to make it a full house was the withdrawal through illness of Mihoko Fujimura and her replacement by no less a singer than Petra Lang -  who had been outstanding  in a performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony with the same orchestra just before Christmas. Meanwhile,  in the interim Ms Fujimura was very disappointing singing the Wesendonck Lieder with Mariss Janssons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Ms Lang flew in from rehearsals for Lohengrin in Geneva for this concert and the preceding night’s performance in Brighton. She took the stage as  an elegant vision in gold but with a foreboding grimace on her face. After her tender plaintive Der Einsame in Herbst, with her second song any momentary nerves, if there were such, appeared to have left her and she smiled gently,  making light of this song about ‘Beauty’ with the neighing horses that seem to be a fence too far for most singers. She has a wonderfully secure voice throughout a range that goes in Der Abschied for instance,  from the low contralto of ‘Die Vögel hocken still in ihren Zweigen’ to the high soprano of ‘O ewigen Liebens-Lebenstrunk’ne Welt!’ and if she does breathe (and it almost seems she doesn’t) she does it imperceptibly. By the time she got to her final ‘Ewig … ewig’ few in the audience were left unmoved by this most generous and communicative singer. Ms Lang is one of the world’s great artists and is at the peak of her powers,  unequalled in Mahler and the Wagner roles she sings,  as well as much other repertoire.

She was admirably supported by Christoph Eschenbach and the LPO. I have never been more struck by Mahler's use of pentatonic scales in imitation of the Chinese music than I was at this performance; more  in the faster movement than in the slower ones but throughout it was as if I were listening to it for the very first time. So much detail did I hear in these songs of the fragile splendours of life: youth, beauty, drunkenness and also melancholy, fate, the approach of death, that the performance felt like a genuine revelation.

The tenor has a thankless task and can never be perfect because the voice does not exist that can rise to all the challenges Mahler sets it. The Austrian Nikolai Schukoff has a voice of great musicality, a little on the small size when pitched against Mahler’s incandescent orchestration at its very loudest,  and his top notes were never achieved with the greatest of ease. He gave an interesting dramatic twist to his songs,  subtly varying his expression in the ‘Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod’ repetitions of his first song but he over-acted the ‘drunk’ in Der Trunkene im Frühling a bit too much yet still employed an elegant head voice for ‘Der Vogel singt und lacht!’ in this song.

Since starting to write all my reflective reviews for ‘Seen and Heard’ I have been reluctant to participate in recommending anything annually as my ‘Performance Of The Year’. 2008 will be different because it will not matter what I hear from now on, for this – somewhat neglected – Mahler concert, what with all the Gergiev brouhaha, is undoubtedly already my concert of this year and for several years past! The concert was recorded for potential release on the LPO’s own label, if you were not present – or like me would want to hear this again and again – please press the LPO to release it at the earliest opportunity.

Jim Pritchard

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