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Brighton Festival 2009 -Mozart, Mahler: Piotr Anderszewksi piano, Philharmonia Orchestra/ Esa-Pekka Salonen, The Dome, Brighton, 22.5.2009 (RA)

Mozart, Piano Concert No 18 in Bb K456
Mahler, Symphony No 6


If Gustav Mahler had been reincarnated, what kind of rock band would he have joined? One member of the audience, just assaulted by Mahler  Sixth Symphony turned to a companion and said: “I suppose that was classical music’s version of heavy metal . . .”  The emotionally troubled Austrian conductor and composer had no recourse to Marshall amplification, but he had his instrumentation, of course. And our audience member clutched a concert programme listing 103 players.

The stage had earlier sighed with relief at the false dawn of a full-length grand piano being wheeled off — only for the orchestra to double in size after the interval for the Mahler. The decibel level of a large Mahler-sized orchestra was noted back in the 1970s to reach that of bands like The Who and Black Sabbath. And some of the climaxes and outbursts of Mahler’s No 6 turmoil and angst possibly exceeded that.

Mahler might have been subject to deep introspection and fear over his own health and that of the whole human world but when it came to telling all that in music, he is as in your face as guitarists Tony Iommi, Pete Townshend or drummer Keith Moon. Hence Mahler’s plugging in and cranking up the volume to 11 on the dial his nine French Horns, his 12 other brass, and his 20 woodwinds.

Even his half-century of string players were fronted by a leader in James Clark who took up the space, it seemed, of both ZZ Top guitarists put together. A giant of a man, when the orchestra took their five-plus minutes of ovations at the end, he completely obscured his Number 2, Maya Iwabuchi.

The audience produced vocally, as well as manually, their own decibel meter-busting response to the performance.  Finnish star Essa-Pekka Salonen — like Mahler, a composer who conducts —  was brought back three times, apparently blessed with the customary aerobically-boosted fitness his on-stage occupation engenders. Heart trouble took Mahler’s life at 50. Salonen is  51, five years older than Mahler was at the work’s 1906 premier (and  incidentally, born under the same Zodiac sign, of Cancer). I have heard Mahler Six only a handful of times, all in live broadcasts but its psychological import deters my buying a recording. Not needy of dark home sessions on my domestic sound system I am going to keep it that way. My first in-the-flesh experience — this one — will remain what I always knew it would be. An almost overwhelming, near-exhausting experience.

The Philharmonia are now part of the Brighton Festival scene so this was an experience for them too. After what must have been the symphony’s duration of around 1hr 40min, they were hurrying to Brighton station for the last train to London after a day of not only  sapping performance and artistic intensity, but after a full rehearsal earlier in the day. What was Salonen like to play under, I asked one player. “Terrific. He is so clear, and he’s got so many ideas.” This proved a thrilling event two days short of the Brighton Festival conclusion and  Salonen was conducting in some of his strongest territory. He first leapt to prominence in 1983 with this very orchestra when he deputised at short notice for Michael Tilson Thomas in Mahler’s Third Symphony having never previously studied the score. Such an assured delivery of No 6 made the experience a real privilege for the audience.

The concert began with an effective foil. Mozart’s 18^th Piano Concerto, like many wrongly neglected in popular concert programming, surprised and delighted the audience. Polish soloist Piotr Anderszewksi showed a real affinity for it; thoughtfulness, imagination and an urge to investigate. The Philharmonia’s striking wind colours emphasised the operatic element lurking within so many of Mozart orchestral works and the horns in particular played to perfection.

Anderszewski’s unquiet interpretation of the extraordinary middle movement left no doubt about its greatness. Some spontaneous applause at its end was curtailed by the immediate commencement of the finale, in which Anderszewski’s sense of spontanaiety and entertainment made it easy to imagine Mozart’s own triumph after giving this work himself in front of 1,500 Viennese in 1785.

Richard Amey


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