RSNO Mahler Nine Usher Hall Edinburgh 21st February 2025 Review
RSNO Mahler Nine at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight was a rare chance to hear one of music's great masterpieces played at its full 90 minute (approx.) performance time. The RSNO have not performed this symphony since 2018. and this performance is part of Music Director Thomas Søndergård’s current Mahler cycle.
Mahler 9 has probably been dissected and analysed by musicologists more than almost any other symphony in the classical music repertoire and there is really little that can be added to what has already been said. We also know from Mahler’s own notes and letters, plus those of family, friends and associates, a lot about his personal physical and mental state of mind whilst writing this monumental work. Well documented facts are that he never really came to terms with the loss of his eldest daughter Maria in 1907 and the fact that he had been diagnosed with a terminal heart condition. We also know that there were many other personal and professional demons which Mahler was struggling to confront at the time. His worsening health was to lead to his death on 18 May 1911 before this symphony had its first performance in Vienna on 26 June 1912.
It is impossible (for me anyhow) to review Symphony No 9 without also spending a little time with Mahler himself, as this work is so intimately interwoven with his own life, which we know, and he also knew, was nearing an end. Also nearing an end in Mahler’s view was the classic symphonic tradition which had a direct line back over 150 or so years, a tradition which many of the great names of music had worked in and developed. Mahler did not take easily to this change.
For me, Mahler 9 should at one level be free of musical analysis and simply enjoyed for what it really is, a massive immersive experience in sound, rhythm and human emotion which celebrates the joys of being alive and the inevitable fact that we all die at some time. These are of course themes which other great composers have explored in their work, but no one seems to have done it with such an expressive or delicate touch as Gustav Mahler.
With his 9th symphony Mahler is leaving us with many clues as to his own personal beliefs, his thoughts on the changing world around him and the many new directions that music itself was exploring at the turn of the 20th century. He is, though, also presenting us with many puzzles and, at times, contradictions. If this symphony is truly his statement of a last stand of the old musical order of things then why is it so often an expansion of abstract themes, and why is it so long? At some 25 minutes, the first movement alone is approaching the full 35/ 40 minutes performance time of many other complete symphonies.
There is something almost organic about Mahler’s 9th, and the more you become immersed in it, the more that you feel this. The opening syncopated rhythm of the first movement is almost like listening to a hearbeat; could it be Mahler’s own? All of the main repeating motifs throughout this epic work are quickly established here too. In the second movement we begin to explore traditional folk music and dance, but even then Mahler shifts theme repeatedly and often mixes light and dark emotional shades together until we find that we are in a new expansive soundscape.
As this work evolves, darker funereal tones begin to dominate and you could be forgiven for thinking that what follows is a dark and pessimistic view on the futility of life itself due to its inevitable demise. Towards the end of this work in the fourth movement, Mahler confounds us all again as here there is none of the slow build-up towards the end with its powerful musical climax. Instead, here is one of the most fragile and emotional moments ever written in music, almost as if on a whisper in the air. Is this Mahler himself telling us some final unspoken secret?
To perform Mahler 9 is a massive undertaking for any orchestra and it was written specifically for a large orchestra. As such, the sheer range of instruments that come into play, some just for fleeting moments, is grand in its scale to start with. It takes not only exceptional musicians to perform the ever-changing technically demanding themes in this work, but also those with the sheer focus of will to do this for this work's huge performance time of 90 minutes. Tonight the RSNO musicians and Conductor/Musical Director Thomas Søndergård were more than ready for this challenge and deserved every minute of this audience's applause at the end.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Mahler 9 has probably been dissected and analysed by musicologists more than almost any other symphony in the classical music repertoire and there is really little that can be added to what has already been said. We also know from Mahler’s own notes and letters, plus those of family, friends and associates, a lot about his personal physical and mental state of mind whilst writing this monumental work. Well documented facts are that he never really came to terms with the loss of his eldest daughter Maria in 1907 and the fact that he had been diagnosed with a terminal heart condition. We also know that there were many other personal and professional demons which Mahler was struggling to confront at the time. His worsening health was to lead to his death on 18 May 1911 before this symphony had its first performance in Vienna on 26 June 1912.
It is impossible (for me anyhow) to review Symphony No 9 without also spending a little time with Mahler himself, as this work is so intimately interwoven with his own life, which we know, and he also knew, was nearing an end. Also nearing an end in Mahler’s view was the classic symphonic tradition which had a direct line back over 150 or so years, a tradition which many of the great names of music had worked in and developed. Mahler did not take easily to this change.
For me, Mahler 9 should at one level be free of musical analysis and simply enjoyed for what it really is, a massive immersive experience in sound, rhythm and human emotion which celebrates the joys of being alive and the inevitable fact that we all die at some time. These are of course themes which other great composers have explored in their work, but no one seems to have done it with such an expressive or delicate touch as Gustav Mahler.
With his 9th symphony Mahler is leaving us with many clues as to his own personal beliefs, his thoughts on the changing world around him and the many new directions that music itself was exploring at the turn of the 20th century. He is, though, also presenting us with many puzzles and, at times, contradictions. If this symphony is truly his statement of a last stand of the old musical order of things then why is it so often an expansion of abstract themes, and why is it so long? At some 25 minutes, the first movement alone is approaching the full 35/ 40 minutes performance time of many other complete symphonies.
There is something almost organic about Mahler’s 9th, and the more you become immersed in it, the more that you feel this. The opening syncopated rhythm of the first movement is almost like listening to a hearbeat; could it be Mahler’s own? All of the main repeating motifs throughout this epic work are quickly established here too. In the second movement we begin to explore traditional folk music and dance, but even then Mahler shifts theme repeatedly and often mixes light and dark emotional shades together until we find that we are in a new expansive soundscape.
As this work evolves, darker funereal tones begin to dominate and you could be forgiven for thinking that what follows is a dark and pessimistic view on the futility of life itself due to its inevitable demise. Towards the end of this work in the fourth movement, Mahler confounds us all again as here there is none of the slow build-up towards the end with its powerful musical climax. Instead, here is one of the most fragile and emotional moments ever written in music, almost as if on a whisper in the air. Is this Mahler himself telling us some final unspoken secret?
To perform Mahler 9 is a massive undertaking for any orchestra and it was written specifically for a large orchestra. As such, the sheer range of instruments that come into play, some just for fleeting moments, is grand in its scale to start with. It takes not only exceptional musicians to perform the ever-changing technically demanding themes in this work, but also those with the sheer focus of will to do this for this work's huge performance time of 90 minutes. Tonight the RSNO musicians and Conductor/Musical Director Thomas Søndergård were more than ready for this challenge and deserved every minute of this audience's applause at the end.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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