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Grandeur and a Pair of Nursery Tunes New York
Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
08/06/2024 - & August 3 (Grafenegg), 10 (Bolzano), 2024
Anna Clyne: Masquerade
Ernst von Dohnányi: Variations on a Nursery Tune, Opus 25
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major
Isata Kanneh-Mason (Pianist)
Guest Musicians from the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, European Youth Orchestra, Iván Fischer (Music Director, Conductor)
I. Fischer (© Sonja Werner)
“Mahler...was an unrestrained genius. Music flew out of Mahler’s mind without any effort...I feel much more familiarity with Mahler’s music, it seems to me like somebody I know well.”
Iván Fischer
While envy is an unenviable word, I experienced total envy last night at the newest Week of Orchestras festival at Carnegie Hall. With an audience which was probably quite new to concert experiences (applauding at the slightest fermatas), I was envious that they had never heard Gustav Mahler before. And that their first experience might have been the European Youth Orchestra, led by one of the great Mahler conductors of the 20th Century, Iván Fischer.
Add to this that Mahler’s First Symphony is an “easy” symphony, a work starting with sounds of nature, going on to a satirical country funeral and ending with blasts, chorales and triumphant finales.
To those last night bringing children, “trying out” classical music with a piece on nursery tunes, this was the equivalent of Saint Paul’s revelation. And I did begrudge their revelation.
Then again, Mr. Fischer was not merely a guest conductor. For an orchestra founded by Claudio Abbado, these 120‑odd musicians, aged 16‑20 from all the European Union countries (plus guests from Ukraine last night) have performed internationally under the finest conductors, such as their Music Director last night.
And yes, Mr. Fischer gave a most dynamic performance of the Mahler, though not all was perfect. That opening–along with the opening of Beethoven’s Ninth–is almost impossible to achieve ideally. Those birdcalls and more abstract sounds of nature should not appear, they must come from the aether, must whisper and withdraw and from aural invisibility appear like spirits before coming forth to the real opening.
Mr. Fischer (and a few other conductors) can achieve that on recordings. Here they were mere birdcalls coming from varied parts of the stage, branching into Mahler’s glorious paean to Nature itself.
After this it was all systems go for the Maestro and his orchestra, each movement more moving than the other to that series of finales bringing the audience viscerally to its feet.
Coincidentally, that third movement was one of two nursery rhymes in the concert.Frère Jacques in the double bass was Mahler’s lampoon. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was Ernst von Dohnányi’s springboard for a series of the most diverse–and most brilliantly orchestrated–variations.
I. Kanneh-Mason (© David Venni)
It was equally the springboard for pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason’s dazzling performance. The entire piece, outside of the orchestral ritornellos, was a cadenza for piano, and Ms. Kanneh‑Mason was a master of her keyboard. Not only whizzing up and down the scale with electrifying pace, but giving it a legato velvety touch. The work is difficult enough, but to give it (transposing Governor Walz’ words) the “Pianism of joy” is almost impossible. But she did it.
This work deserved an encore. Her version of The Man I Love was less Earl Wild-style technical brilliance as a tribute to a melody which Schubert himself would have envied.
The European Youth Orchestra also sailed through the opening Masquerade by the British composer Anna Clyne. This work, using tunes from a country celebration, is (in the composer’s words) “a sense of occasion and celebration”. It is also a five‑minute orchestral tour de force. Mr. Fischer and his ensemble handled the whirling roulades like a piece of cake.
And a sweet foretaste for the grandeur to come.
Harry Rolnick
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