{"id":38888,"date":"2016-09-29T15:27:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T19:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=38888"},"modified":"2016-09-29T16:36:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T20:36:56","slug":"scrutiny-tso-mahler-third","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/09\/29\/scrutiny-tso-mahler-third\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | TSO Move Mountains With Mahler Symphony Three"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The TSO Perform Mahler’s monumental Third Symphony with soloist Jamie Barton and conductor Peter Oundjian (Photo: Jag Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs Mahler’s Third with mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and conductor Peter Oundjian. Wednesday, Sept. 28. (Repeats Thursday, Sept. 29). Tickets available at\u00a0www.tso.ca<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

For classical music lovers \u2014 and Toronto Symphony Orchestra fans in particular \u2014 the cup truly runneth over. In the span of one week, we\u2019ve had a Renee Fleming star turn, followed by Henning Kraggerud and his fabulous Sibelius. Now we have a real biggie, the rarely performed Mahler Third. I say \u2018rare\u2019 not because it\u2019s under-appreciated or unworthy. Like the Mahler Eighth, the huge resources required in the Third is nearly as great \u2014 an immense orchestra, a soloist and three choirs, a real artistic challenge, not to mention a financial risk. So any performance is an occasion, and when it\u2019s as superb as the one last evening, it was an unalloyed pleasure.<\/p>\n

Mahler Third is said to be the longest symphony in the standard repertoire. Depends on the tempo, the first part (Movement 1) is nearly 40 minutes and the second part (Movements 2 to 6) is a good hour if not slightly over. Usually performed without an intermission, surprisingly there was one last night, between parts 1 and 2. I won\u2019t be a snob and say there shouldn\u2019t have been one, but it does break the overall impact of the work. In any case, the Third bears a strong kinship to Mahler Fourth in terms of melodic inspiration, sharing the commonality of Des Knaben Wunderhorn<\/em>. It\u2019s also reminiscent of the Eighth as well in the orchestration since Mahler \u201crecycles\u201d some of his musical ideas.<\/p>\n

The Third is sometimes called \u201cprogram music,\u201d not surprising as it was all the rage in the late 19th<\/sup> century when Mahler composed this. He was very specific in his story telling, with titles for the movements. \u2014 1) “Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In\u2019” 2) “What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me,” 3) “What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me” 4) “What Man Tells Me” 5) “What the Angels Tell Me” and 6) “What Love Tells Me.” It represents, in essence, Mahler\u2019s worldview, a sort of evolutionary scheme of things, from a chaotic, unpredictable and sometimes violent universe gradually giving way to nature, the arrival of mankind, and finally the composer\u2019s vision of heaven at the conclusion.<\/p>\n

\"TSO
TSO with mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and conductor Peter Oundjian (Photo: Jag Photography)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Much have been written about the meaning of all of it, and this short review is not the place to open this can of worms. That said, I think his worldview, his vision of nature and mankind and God reflects his 19th<\/sup> century, Mitteleuropa<\/em> Judeo-Christian upbringing. As concert attendees, what really matters is the musical values of the performance, and I can say unequivocally that the TSO under Peter Oundjian gave a marvellous, overwhelming, and ultimately very moving reading of this monumental piece. The recurring melodies in the 5th<\/sup> and 6th<\/sup> movements were so transcendentally beautiful that it took my breath away \u2013 kudos to the TSO for playing so beautifully.<\/p>\n

I wouldn\u2019t be truthful if I say I love everything about this piece of music. I do find it a bit too brass-heavy, especially in Part 1, and really it\u2019s a bit too long, pace<\/em> Mahler addicts! But as a performance, it was about as fine as one could expect. The mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton gave a luminous performance in the alto solo of the 4th<\/sup> movement. Her beginning words, \u201cO Mensch! Gib Acht!\u201d sent chills up and down my spine. I don\u2019t think I was imagining it, but her dark tone was eerily reminiscent of the young Maureen Forrester. The choral forces, made up of the women of the Amadeus Choir and Elmer Iseler Singers, the Oriana Women\u2019s Choir, and the Toronto Children\u2019s Chorus, were fantastic. This season being Peter Oundjian\u2019s second last with the TSO, I have to say this performance represents one of his crowning achievements.<\/p>\n

[Update: Sept 29, 4:30 EST: A previous version stated this was\u00a0Peter Oundjian’s final year with the TSO. In fact, the 2017\u201318 season will be his last.]<\/em><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? Get our exclusive newsletter\u00a0here<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mahler’s Third Symphony just might be Peter Oundjian’s crowning achievement of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":38890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,76,19,52],"tags":[1500,6276,3359,3403],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/Jamie-Barton-Peter-Oundjian_-3-Jag-Photography.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-a7e","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38888"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38894,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38888\/revisions\/38894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38888"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=38888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}