Exciting but inconsistent playing from the EUYO at Carnegie Hall

Leonard Bernstein once posited that the key to enjoying Mahler’s music was in giving yourself over to its exaggerated emotionality. Speaking to children, he described the big feelings engendered by the composer as almost childlike. That may be true, but it also only nods at the complexity already found in his early works. In addition to foretelling the bridge between 19th-century Romanticism and 20th-century Modernism, the ever-popular Symphony no. 1 in D major demonstrates Mahler’s gift for intricate orchestration, his ability to build complex passages from simple tunes and his thoughtful, creative incorporation of existing music to new ends. Appearing at Carnegie Hall as part of World Orchestra Week, the European Union Youth Orchestra excelled more in communicating the symphony’s bombastic passion than its subtle artistry. 

Under the direction of Iván Fischer, the opening movement felt hidebound and rigid – the opposite of the composer’s Immer sehr gemächlich marking. Musicians entered precisely, sections delineated themes with clear detail, and the proceedings unfolded at a more-or-less expected pace. Stylistically, though, a greater sense of rubato could have gone a long way in tying the music together with a greater sense of flowing energy from one moment to the next. The talented musicians, aged between 16 and 26 years, followed Fischer intently, but lost in their precision was a greater sense of the shifting moods the symphony conveys.

Matters improved significantly beginning with the second movement, which emerged with a juicy sense of Romantic sweep. The hefty sound Fischer drew here added a real sense of jollity to the Scherzo – a Ländler that seems simpler than the ones Mahler would employ in later works, yet already bursting with a palpable sense of irony. The double basses anchored a vehement distortion of the Bruder Martin tune in the third movement, which set the course for a highly energized race to the finish. The musicians couldn’t quite pull the reins for the work’s delicate ending, but the overall effect of the performance was one of promise and zeal.

Fischer and the EUYO complemented Mahler 1 with another work that can feel deceptively simple on its face: Ernst von Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Tune. Isata Kanneh-Mason made for a stylish soloist, introducing the familiar theme of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star with the right amount of impish wit, and maintaining a sense of genuine invention throughout the twelve variations. The orchestra occasionally covered her in passages that underscore the hard-charging contrast of the accompaniment, but the overall quality of her sound was as assertive as it was lyrical.

Kanneh-Mason encored with a transcription of Gershwin’s The Man I Love, notable more for its beauty of tone than emotional insight. Similarly, the EUYO began the concert with Anna Clyne’s Masquerade, in a rendition that leaned more toward an exciting sound than an insightful interpretation. Like Mahler, Clyne folded some familiar melodies into her five-minute work – although recognizable in the musicians’ hands, they did not seem transformed.