concert review: Philharmonia Orchestra plays Mozart and Mahler

Mahler's 5th Symphony is, to be blunt, a monster. It spans five movements and clocks in at 70 minutes; its longest movement alone closes in 20 minutes and its shortest is just under 10. And it doesn't help that the symphony is the musical equivalent of a tornado: strings swirl viciously, brass roar, and the sound explodes forward, crushing everything in its path. But then, suddenly, just as tornadoes have been known to insert a straw into a glass bottle and set it down without a scratch, the piece backs off: it falls to a hush and allows moments of incredible beauty to filter through, like light through the clouds after the storm - only to take off again in a massive crescendo. For, when it comes down to it, Mahler's 5th contains more melodic phrases and ideas in its 70 minutes than most composers think of in a lifetime; it is so crammed full with them that they literally tumble over each other as if vying for attention - they interrupt mid phrase and shove each other out of the way. All of this, of course, means that a description of the piece is practically impossible without delving into a book-length analysis. It's overwhelming and exhausting, and a wonder that it's not a total mess. And it's fiendishly difficult to pull off - not only performing the entire thing without a hitch, but keeping the audience engaged for its entire length. So when it happens, it's an exhilarating, breathtaking event.

Such it was with London's Philharmonia Orchestra on Thursday night, under the direction of Finnish guest conductor Leif Segerstam. The musicians blasted through the massive symphony with an energy appropriately equal to the intensity of the music - and maintained their stamina and ardor for the entire 70 minutes. And the two highlights of the evening could not have been more different: the second movement in itself was an awe-inspiring thing, rumbling with aggression like some unrestrained animal, while the famous fourth movement - which Mahler composed as a love letter to his wife - was appropriately subdued; the interplay between the strings and the harp - a sharp contrast to the largely brass-driven movements which preceded it - was gentle but rich, delicate but lush and full of colour. It's a testament to the orchestra's caliber that their excellent performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto #20, assisted with exquisite lyricism by French pianist David Fray, and whose playful accessibility was the perfect counterpoint to the challenging and demanding Mahler, was almost completely overshadowed by the second half of the concert. What is a main course for many an orchestra was here little more than an appetizer.

It's a rare occurrence to witness a musical performance on a level such as this - where the passion of the players, the sound of the instruments, and the boldness and quality of the music itself are all uniform. And though the idiom of "it's always better live than on the record" is overused these days, it rang particularly true for Thursday night. A recording of Mahler's 5th can't explode up at you, uninhibited, fiery and colossal; it can't make you sit back in your chair, taken aback at its raw and unexpected beauty; it can't make you lean forward in its final moments, holding your breath in thrilled anticipation as it races towards its triumphant climax. This did.

Concert score: 100