Tag Archives: Gustav Mahler

On Record – MahlerFest XXXI: Das Lied von der Erde (with Stacey Rishoi, Brennen Guillory)

Posted on by
Reply

Stacey Rishoi (mezzo-soprano), Brennen Guillory (tenor), Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Mahler
Das Lied von der Erde (1908-09)

Colorado MahlerFest 195269164287 [58’46”]
Producer Mike Quam Engineer Tim Burton
Live performances at Macky Auditorium, Boulder, Colorado, 19-20 May 2018

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Colorado MahlerFest here issues on CD the ‘official’ first instalment of its Mahler cycle with current artistic director Kenneth Woods – The Song of the Earth being heard in a performance whose attributes have been maintained as well as enhanced throughout the intervening decade.

What are the performances like?

Nominally his ‘Ninth Symphony’, Mahler’s uncertainty over so-designating this piece means it is still frequently overlooked in traversals of his symphonies. Launching his cycle thus (the Seventh and Tenth Symphonies, heard at MahlerFest XXIX and XXX, will be given again in the 2028/29 editions), Woods gave notice of his identity with a work he had earlier conducted and recorded in the chamber transcription begun in 1921 by Schoenberg then completed over six decades later by Rainer Riehn (SOMMCD0109) whose virtues seem no less evident here.

Together with Woods, both these performances have in common the tenor Brennen Guillory – his impulsive while never histrionic tenor heard to impressive effect in ‘The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow’, with its constant pivoting between despair and resignation prior to those fateful final bars. By contrast, ‘The Lonely One in Autumn’ has a seamlessness and lucidity duly accentuated by the flowing tempo (rightly) adopted here; mezzo Stacey Rishoi placing equal emphasis on that inward anguish and alleviating rapture as inform this masterly setting.

There is no falling off of insight during the triptych of scherzos – with trios – which follows. Guillory resists any temptation to over-characterize ‘Of Youth’ with its myriad subtleties of orchestration and piquant harmony, then Rishoi brings alluring elegance to the outer sections of ‘Of Beauty’ with its boisterous central section ideally integrated into this setting overall. Its barbed humour all too easy to caricature, ‘The Drunkard in Spring’ evinces wit and not a little pathos as Guillory veers pointedly if always securely between escapism and epiphany.

Whether or not his greatest achievement, ‘The Farewell’ is Mahler’s most personal statement – a ‘scena’ for voice and instruments with his increasing preference for stratified textures and ethereal sonorities at its most potent. At just under 28 minutes, Woods demonstrably has the measure of a lengthy though never discursive span whose settings of fateful anticipation then ecstatic fulfilment are linked, motivically as well as conceptually, by a central interlude with its fateful processional made as tangible as is Rishoi’s serene leave-taking towards the close.

Does it all work?

Pretty much throughout. Many accounts of this work have been affected by less than ideally matched vocalists and/or at least one less than perceptive movement, but the present reading avoids these pitfalls. The woodwind principals are never less than equal to their considerable tasks, and if the playing of the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra has gained during subsequent editions in terms of unanimity and lustre, its underlying commitment is never for a moment in doubt heard in Mackey Auditorium’s close yet never confined or unsympathetic acoustic.

Is it recommended?

It is, not just as an indication of where the association between this orchestra and conductor was headed. No-one hearing their performance could question Woods’s standing as a Mahler interpreter of distinction, or this orchestra’s ability to rise to the challenge of Mahler’s music.

Listen / Buy

For further purchase options, visit the MahlerFest website – and for more information on the festival itself, click here. Click on the names for further information on conductor Kenneth Woods and tenor Brennen Guillory

Published post no.3,044 – Sunday 11 October 2026

On this day in 1910 – the premiere of Mahler’s Symphony no.8

Posted on by
Reply

by Ben Hogwood. Photo of Mahler by Moritz Nähr, courtesy of Wikipedia

On this day in 1910, the premiere of Mahler’s Symphony no.8 took place. Arcana has two personal pieces about this symphony by John Earls – the first about wondering when he might complete his Mahler symphony cycle, coming out of COVID-19 – and the second when he finally did, a memorable day in 2022

There are a good number of performances of the symphony online, but Arcana has selected this big hitting performance under the direction of Marc Albrecht, live from Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw:

Published post no.3,315 – Saturday 12 September 2026

New music – Sondre Lerche: Follow The River (PLZ / Virgin)

Posted on by
Reply

published by Ben Hogwood, with text from the press release

Acclaimed Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche releases euphoric new single Follow The River – a flamboyant 9-minute pop-odyssey that captures the Norwegian songwriter in an unabashedly romantic, ecstatic state of mind, energised by renewed faith in love and life. Follow The River marks the second reveal from Lerche’s newly announced eleventh studio album Acrobats, out on Friday 21 August via PLZ / Virgin.

Acrobats – his first full-length of brand new music in over four years, marks the return of the beloved Norwegian artist with an album that’s bold and bombastic; a polarising reflection on the dichotomy of finding love while in times of soulless global unrest and unfathomable human atrocities.

Originally beginning life as “quite a small and simple song”, new single Follow The River gradually expanded into what Lerche describes as his “very first disco odyssey” – a sprawling nine-minute epic in its full album form, packed with ever-new scenes, encounters and experiences.

Each of its six verses zooms in on the profound and mundane details of two lost dreamers meeting and falling in love through music, scent and taste, on breezy bar visits and through sticky, sweaty city streets in summer.

“This one doesn’t make excuses for being completely overcome with feelings of love and desire,” says Lerche. “So naturally I thought, ‘I need a gospel choir on this,’ because it’s almost indulging, maybe, as an act of defiance, in the beauty of two humans finding each other, reveling in all the little, mundane moments of that.”

Featuring a rousing gospel-style choir and adlibs from singer Suzanne Sumbudu, Follow The River stands in striking contrast to much of the wider Acrobats album – unashamedly upbeat, optimistic and love drunk in all its glory.

Musically, the recording shamelessly embraces music history with nods to everyone from Pet Shop Boys, Janet Jackson and Steve Reich to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, which inspired the track after Lerche found himself “crying his eyes out” during a performance at the Oslo Opera. “It actually started out as quite a small and simple song, but the story expanded into more of an epic, and I felt the urge to turn the entire recording into a groovy adventure, with ever-new scenes, encounters, and experiences,” says Lerche. The track also features what is perhaps Lerche’s most natural and simplistic chorus so far in his ever-expanding catalogue.

Alongside the sprawling album version – which even includes its own remix in the spirit of Pet Shop Boys’ Introspective – the song will also be released as an elegant and concise single edit clocking in at four effective minutes before summer takes over.

The expansive album version features contributions from saxophonist Jonas Hamre, clarinetist Solveig Wang and vocalist Gabriela Garrubo, alongside Lerche’s longtime collaborators, drummer Dave Heilman and producer Kato Ådland.

‘Acrobats’ physical pre-order is available as a webstore exclusive 2xLP gatefold ‘Splendor’ edition including recent EP ‘Turning Up The Heat Again’, a standard 1xLP edition on transparent red vinyl, and CD.

Sondre Lerche‘s new album ‘Acrobats’ is out 21st August via PLZ / Virgin. Sondre Lerche will embark on an extensive headline tour in support of the new album, which will take him across the UK, Europe and the US. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit his website HERE.

Published post no.2,921 – Thursday 18 June 2026

On Record – Soloists of the English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods: Mahler arr. Simon: Symphony no.9 (ESO Records)

Posted on by
Reply

Soloists of the English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Mahler arr. Simon Symphony no.9 in D major (1908-09, arr. 2007)

ESO Records ESO2602 [76’52”]
Producer Phil Rowlands Engineer Tim Burton

Recorded 23-25 March 2021 at Wyastone Concert Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

The English Symphony Orchestra continues releases for its ESO Records label with Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, arranged by Klaus Simon and thereby continuing a lineage pioneered by the Society for Private Musical Performances established by Schoenberg after the First World War.

What’s the music like?

Schoenberg tackled Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Erwin Stein his Fourth Symphony, but neither is as ambitious as that of the Ninth arranged here for single strings and woodwind (these latter with doublings), two horns, trumpet, one percussionist, piano and harmonium.

Whatever the logistical disparity between original and arrangement, the music’s textural and motivic content remain intact. This is evident from the opening Andante comodo, its formal trajectory of interlocking arcs made explicit so its long-term expressive intensification feels no less tangible. To this end, piano or harmonium contribute much more than merely filling-out the texture; articulating and reinforcing its harmonic profile through to a coda clinching the overall tonal journey with a serenity more poignant for its remaining, as yet, unfulfilled.

The ensuing Ländler emerges no less lucidly overall, with Kenneth Woods (rightly) resisting any temptation to point up emotional contrast across a movement whose deceptive blitheness of spirit is only gradually undermined. Equally notable is the way that Simon has emphasized contrasts in timbre and texture, with the music ultimately fragmenting into a bemused parody of how it began. More questionable is the Rondo-Burleske where Woods’s underlying tempo in its outer sections, while enabling the music’s contrapuntal intricacy to emerge unimpeded, is a little too dogged to convey the assaultive quality Mahler surely intended. This is less of an issue in the central trio whose aching regret is potently captured; the stealthy regaining of tension no less evident before the final section propels this movement to its anguished close.

No such issues affect the final Adagio – its equivocation only relative now that the complete Tenth Symphony has been accepted into the Mahler canon, yet remaining a test of all-round cohesion such as this account renders with unwavering conviction. Having finely gauged the balance between its starkly contrasted episodes, Woods assuredly controls the winding down of tension towards a coda of inward rapture despite its sparseness of gesture, while affording that speculative closing interplay of solo strings the necessary temporal and emotional space.

Does it all work?

Yes it does, not least through persuading the listener that such a reduction is worthwhile not merely out of contingency alone. It should hardly need to be added the playing from this 19-strong ensemble, drawn from the ranks of the English Symphony Orchestra, is consistently attuned to the essence of this music, while also making the strongest case possible for what is a methodical while empathetic arrangement. No-one having heard it is likely to feel short-changed as to the relevance of Mahler Nine on its own terms or to the symphonic literature.

Is it recommended?

Yes it is, an impressively conceived and executed reading which demonstrates the efficacy of this arrangement to moving effect. Note too that Woods’ performance of the Ninth Symphony at this year’s Colorado MahlerFest will be available from its own in-house label in due course.

Listen / Buy

You can listen to excerpts and explore purchase options at the Presto Music website. Click on the names to read more about the English Symphony Orchestra, conductor Kenneth Woods and arranger / composer Klaus Simon

Published post no.2,891 – Monday 18 May 2026

In Concert – Peter Moore, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Dai Fujikura & Mahler

Posted on by
Reply

Peter Moore (trombone), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada (above)

Mahler Blumine (1884)
Fujikura Trombone Concerto ‘Vast Ocean II’ (2005/23) [UK Premiere]
Mahler Symphony no.1 in D major (1887-88, rev. 1889-98)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Thursday 15 January 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo (c) Andrew Fox

Mahler has not been absent from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s schedule since those halcyon years of Simon Rattle, though even he never undertook a chronological traversal of such as the orchestra’s current music director Kazuki Yamada duly commenced this evening.

Although the First Symphony was heard in its customary four-movement version as finalized for a Vienna performance in 1898, the so-called Blumine taken over from earlier incidental music and included as second movement in the earliest performances was given as an entrée to this concert. With its lilting trumpet melody – effortlessly unfolded by Holly Clark – and its aura of rapt inwardness, this elegant intermezzo was audibly out of place given the transition from symphonic poem to symphony, but it retains an appeal that was winningly evident here.

Two years ago Yamada and the CBSO gave the premiere of Wavering World by Japanese-born composer Dai Fujikura, and it was heartening to see the association continued with this first hearing in the UK for Vast Ocean II. Not so much a reworking as the reconceiving of a piece from 18 years earlier, this trombone concerto unfolded within the context of an orchestra rich in alluring sonorities yet streamlined in texture. This latter entered gradually while remaining focussed on (if never beholden to) a soloist whose role is almost that of a ‘cantus firmus’ that guides the music, through waves of increasing activity, towards a fervent culmination before a suspenseful closing evanescence. It helped to have in Peter Moore a soloist who manifestly believed in the music and contributed greatly to the impact of this memorable performance.

And so to Mahler’s First Symphony that, following on from Yamada’s accounts of the Fourth and Ninth in recent seasons, drew a suitably visceral response from conductor and orchestra. Not that this traversal was without failings: the ‘coming of spring’ in the opening pages was unerringly judged, as too the transition into its genial main theme, though this first movement rather lost focus in the mounting intensity of its final stages which felt rather rushed through. There were no provisos about a scherzo whose impetuous outer sections found ideal contrast with its ländler-informed trio of winning poise. The ensuing funeral march was equally well judged, bassist Anthony Alcock setting in motion this unlikely processional whose pathos is tinged by irony and even ambivalence before its jaunty climax then withdrawal into silence.

Launched with piercing clamour, the finale may ultimately have been no more than the sum of its parts, but the best were indeed memorable. So if the expressive second theme sounded overly generic, the approach to the central peroration was astutely handled, with the hushed recollection of earlier ideas never less than spellbinding. Nor was the stealthy build-up to the apotheosis lacking purpose, even if this latter emerged as less than majestic given Yamada’s headlong rush to those brusque closing chords. Audience response was accordingly effusive.

One person who would no doubt have wanted to be present was Andrew Clements, who died just four days earlier. A regular CBSO reviewer for the Guardian, his laconic while considered observations were always centred on the premise that music, whether in or of itself, mattered.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2025/26 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names for more on trombonist Peter Moore, CBSO chief conductor Kazuki Yamada and composer Dai Fujikura

Published post no.2,770 – Saturday 17 January 2026