Stepping in at a couple of weeks’ notice for an indisposed Mark Wigglesworth, Israeli-American conductor Yoel Gamzou sought to wring out every gram of drama from this meticulously crafted if episodic account of Mahler’s final completed symphony, the Ninth.
Gamzou’s biography extolls his status as a renowned Mahler interpreter, as well as having completed a performing edition of the unfinished Tenth Symphony. His selection as deputy for this season-highlight concert was therefore tantalising, particularly given the relative rarity of his performances in this country. His rostrum style is strikingly reminiscent of those caricatures of Mahler the conductor, with ultra-expressive, hyper-literal direction applied to almost every bar of the performance thanks to a huge range of gesture. Whether leaping or crouching, his vision for the symphony seemed to be asserted in every beat.
This is music clearly close to his heart, with a lot to say about it; there was certainly no shortage of artistic licence applied in his generous rubato and frequently-added Luftpausen. Herein lay the downside, though: such was the micro-management and extremes of interpretation that the overall structure and momentum of the music was in places compromised, the great paragraphs of the first movement obscured behind distracting minutiae which rendered the music curiously episodic. Still, there is no doubt that this was a totally unique performance which never once threatened to slip into bland conventionality.
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra musicians did a remarkable job to keep pace with the idiosyncrasies being demanded of them. While in places some of the more extreme tempo fluctuations left soloists uncomfortably exposed, there was a great deal to admire in the quality of the wind and brass playing. The symphony’s bitterest moments were snarled out with terrifyingly rich characterisation by trombones and stopped horns, while elsewhere there were some wonderfully attentive passages of chamber music, most of all in duets between flute, horn and violin in the first movement.
Gamzou’s vigour was most effective in the Scherzo, which flew off the pages with ferocious energy. The high-octane speeds made high demands on the string section, who collectively got their fingers around some virtuosic corners without seeming to raise a sweat. There was a long pause before the finale, where a rich string sound and stellar wind soloists (above all horn) went some way to compensating for some of Gamzou’s most egregious interpretative touches. Nonetheless, none could fail to be moved by the magical darkness of the symphony’s last pages.
