Hilary 2020

Saturday 15th February 2020, Sheldonian Theatre

Conducted by Natalia Luis-Bassa

Led by Katalin Oldland

Mahler Symphony No.9

Reviews of this concert can be found here:

REVIEW: OUO – Mahler’s 9th Symphony (oums.co.uk)

Oxford University Orchestra - Mahler Symphony No 9 - Daily Info | Daily Info

String tremolandos and flutter-tongued flutes

With Storm Dennis raging outside the Sheldonian, what would be more appropriate inside than a spot of Mahler to accompany the tempest? And indeed the composer's instruction for the second movement: 'Etwas tappisch und sehr derb' [somewhat clumsy and very rough] does rather summon up Shakespeare's magician on his post-tempest island.

But this was the Ninth Symphony, containing both an Adagio and an Andante movement, so constant fireworks were not on the menu, though with an orchestra numbering 83, including five percussionists and two harps, we surely had the firepower for them. The opening notes for cello and horns found awkwardness of playing from the latter (atypical, since the horns thereafter were very good; particularly their section leader Benjamin Hartnell-Booth) and then we were away with strings and massed brass. The trumpets with mutes had plenty of work soon enough – one of their number, Nick Budd, wrote the laudably copious programme notes, full of imaginative speculation about Mahler's references to life, death and the universe. The tuba player Nick Ingram was also busy with a huge mute that looked a bit like the 1968 Apollo Programme lunar module. The coda to the movement is remarkable in that Mahler fines down his orchestra to chamber music size, as though tacitly admitting that by this late stage of his career he no longer needed enormous resources to express himself adequately.

I was interested in the approach of conductor Natalia Luis-Bassa who holds posts, among others, at Wellington College and the Royal College of Music. I've seen her described as 'dynamic' and 'flamboyant' but here her approach was low-key, minimalist even; employing truncated gesture, seemingly more focused on macro concerns like tempo and rhythm than in micro-directing the sub-sections of the orchestra.

The great spans of the two outer movements, on occasion erupting in monumental climaxes with dynamic contrast, complement each other, but the intention of the two inner ones remains enigmatic. The Rondo Burlesque often runs along at a fairly furious pace, and our young players demonstrated they were not at all fazed by the required virtuosity. The middle passage featured high string tremolandos and flutter-tongued flutes (a little scratchy in tone here). The hushed intensity of the final Adagio, its beginning suggesting clear links to the famous Adagietto of the Fifth Symphony, offers fine scope to the violins. It was interesting to observe how, at the introduction of the second theme, the first violinists applied individually quite widely varying degrees of vibrato to the strings. When they were joined by full brass and woodwinds, the packed tiers of Sheldonian audience were reminded how no orchestra but Mahler's ever sounds quite like this, as we swept on to the conclusion full of glowing optimism.

So here was a concert to warm the cockles of the heart on a wild evening, particularly since Sarah Jenkinson and her acolytes always offer a wide-smiling welcome. Next up at the Sheldonian is the OU Philharmonia this Thursday, with Sibelius and Grieg.

Reuben Tendler reviews the Oxford University Orchestra’s performance of Mahler’s 9th Symphony, conducted by Natalia Luis-Bassa, which took place at the Sheldonian Theatre, 15/2/20.

It’s Saturday night, and the weather outside is miserable. The damp forces of transatlantic nature harbour the great, the good, and the cold into the Sheldonian Theatre. What better way to escape the harsh gales of Broad Street than to sit nearby on a rigid wooden step, listening to an hour and a half of music about premature death. Dennis brings the sturm; Mahler brings the drang.

As the pre-concert announcer reminds the patrons, the Sheldonian was not built to modern standards. It seems that its acoustic properties are not quite apt for the full thrust of symphonic massacre that the OUO present: the horns regularly sound forced and tardy in loud passages, and high string passages mostly disappear into thin air. But on other occasions, the resonance of the hall affords marvellous clarity. The bassoon and clarinet soli at the start of the 2nd movement, and the contrabassoon’s weavings at its close emit a marvellous warmth. And so too do the outbursts of trumpets in the 1st movement, releasing copious amounts of musical tension.

Conductor Natalia Luis-Bassa is strict with time, driving both the ländler of the 2nd movement and the burleske of the 3rd to points of structured frenzy. But this rigidity affects the music’s fluidity, and the players’ obvious need to follow their musical intuitions. Most notably on edge is the somewhat-stumbling flute and horn duet in the 1st movement, yet I must admit that this passage is rather odd in the first place.

After the silence that follows the last dying-away of quiet string melodies of infallible sensitivity, OUO’s brilliant musicians are aptly lauded with fervid applause, and the sound of the audience waking from various levels of music-induced dazes. As the listeners depart, the rumble of the storm seeps through the windows, but the music lingers in the head a little while longer.