One of the reasons that I do my best to try to keep up with performances by the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra (SFSYO) is that, over the course of my many years of following them, they have never been afraid of challenging repertoire. That said, this afternoon’s program in Davies Symphony Hall took the challenges to a new level. Wattis Foundation Music Director Daniel Stewart led the full forces of the ensemble in a performance of Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony, composed (at least on the title page) in the key of C-sharp minor.
This was the only work on the program, clocking in at around 75 minutes in duration. It is particularly interesting in the way Mahler conceived it as an arch-like structure in five movements. The “keystone” is (of course) the middle movement, a Scherzo, which is usually the longest of the five. (Depending on the conductor, it comes in somewhere around twenty minutes—a “full-length” composition unto itself, so to speak.) It is preceded by two very dark movements, both of which are dominated by funeral marches. (The first is explicitly designated as a funeral march. The second is designated as “stormy;” but a funeral is taking place in the midst of the cloudburst.) It is only after the Scherzo that the intensity dies down a bit with an Adagietto scored only for strings (including a harp). This turns out to be the “calm before the storm” of the concluding Rondo, which, in true Finale form, brings back several fragments from the preceding movements while marching again, this time with more energetic determination, climaxing in what almost amounts to a race to the finish line.
That overall plan poses a major challenge to any symphonic ensemble, let alone one of young performers not yet ready to start thinking about their future professions. Fortunately, the SFSYO players enjoy the resources of a moderately large Coaching Faculty, consisting almost entirely of members of the San Francisco Symphony. Thus, even when the conductor may leave much to be desired (in my case that meant, during this season, blowing both hot and cold), there is no doubting that the players themselves are well-trained.
In that context I came away from this afternoon’s performance feeling that they were definitely well-equipped to take on Mahler. That said, I also often felt as if Stewart was spending more time “going with the flow,” rather than “channeling” it. In addition, from time to time it struck me that he was focusing primarily on providing punctuation marks, not all of which seemed to have reinforced the rhetoric that Mahler had laid out (usually highly specifically) in his score.
I also found myself wondering, during the final movement, whether Mahler had deliberately created a “Das Bemerkt ja schon jeder Esel” moment. I first encountered this in an anecdote that involved someone accusing Johannes Brahms as borrowing from Ludwig van Beethoven. Brahms replied, (in the English translation) “Any jackass can see that!” In that vein I found myself thinking how one of the themes in that final Rondo sounded like the entrance of the Mastersingers. Given Mahler’s experience in conducting Wagner operas, I suspect that he decided to have a bit of fun with the audience for his fifth symphony.
Walking back from Davies I decided that, while this may not have been my most satisfying Mahler experience, I was glad that the players had an opportunity to explore all the complexities in that score and then rise to its many challenges.
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