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City of London Festival 2008 (2)  Mahler: Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand”. Soloists; Choir of Eltham College; Choral Arts Society of Washington; London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra/Valery Gergiev. St Pau’s Cathedral, 10.7.2008 (CC)


Performances of Mahler’s behemoth do not come along every day (I have only heard it live once before, with Sinopoli at the helm). It is a piece that needs a vast acoustic space to accomodate its demands. Sinopoli had the Royal Albert Hall, but Gergiev went one better and utilised the vast and beautiful St Paul’s Cathedral. Thankfully, the press tickets were near the front (ten rows back – or around twenty feet behind Gergiev), but even so one could experience regular textural blurring. The effect was there in no uncertain terms, as my unfolding review will reveal, but at the expense of individual lines. Nevertheless, Gergiev;s two performances of the Eighth (there was another the day before) must surely constitute the climax of the City of London Festival.

The list of performers above will indicate surely that, if this was not quite the “Symphony of a Thousand” is was certainly the “Symphony of an Awful Lot of People”. A full list of vocal soloists reads: Viktoria Yastrebova (replacing Anastasia Kalagina), Ailash Tynan, Ludmilla Dudinova, sopranos; Lilli Paasikivi, Zlata Bulycheva, mezzos; Sergey Semishkur, tenor; Evgeny Nikitin, bass-baritone. Yastrebova, actually, was one of the true stars of the evening. She has worked at the Mariinsky (see web site) and has a voice that just radiates purity, yet without any loss of power. If there was a weak link, it was the tenor Sergey Semishkur, again of the Kirov, who, although good, seemed below the bar set by the rest of his colleagues.

The organ of St Paul’s is a justifiably famous instrument, and it was its responsibility to launch the spectacle. The sound grabs you right from the insides. The ensuing choral lines quickly became mushy, however, and on occasion there were timing discrepancies between the horns (on the left of the orchestra) and the lower brass (situated on the right). Structural arrivals made their point in no uncertain terms, most notably the re-entry of the ‘Veni, Creator Spiritus’ material; Gergiev paced the approach to the movement’s close perfectly, leaving us at the end to bathe in the nine-second reverb.

It was in the slow-moving spaces of the opening of the second movement (a setting of the final scene of Goethe’s Faust) that St Paul’s came into its own. The sound itself seemed to be floating around in eternity, devoid of source. Gergiev imbued a warmth, too, to some of the harmonies that, on an internal level, matched the externalizations of the hymn of ‘Veni, Creator Spiritus’. Woodwind sounded like pure Mahler (truly Mahlerisch, if you will); certain harmonies emerged as sinister – not inappropriately, given the text. The baritone Alexey Markov was particularly impressive (huge voice), while, somewhat surprisingly, bass-baritone Evgeny Nikitin seemed less focused at first (and certainly less focused than he had been in the first movement).

Some of tenor Sergey Semishkur’s lines were almost inaudible, even from up close (Doctor Marianus’ ‘Hier ist die Aussicht frei’). Semishkur’s confidence did grow, however (how could it not?) – but the fact remains that none of his colleagues required a warm-in period. The only other soloist’s lines to be masked were Mulier Samaritana’s ‘Bei dem Bronn’ section (Lilli Paasikivi, upstaged on this occasion by her Maria Aegyptiaca, Zlata Bulcheva). Ailash Tynan was blurred acoustically for her first moment of glory before finding vocal redemption at ‘Vom edlen Geisterchor’.

It was left to the choruses to provide the hugely uplifting ‘Chorus Mysticus’ (the famous lines, ‘Anne Vergängliche …’), and they did not disappoint. Gergiev’s pacing of the movement ensured the final pages made their mark, but it was perhaps the considered voicing of the parts, even at extreme dynamic levels, that impressed most.

A word of praise to the children of the chorus, who valiantly held their hands to their faces (as if shouting) for some of their contributions. A memorable occasion, and a memorable performance.

Colin Clarke


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