If, as I did, one still needed clear proof of what The Hallé and Kahchun Wong are capable of together, this overwhelming account of Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony was the strongest possible statement.
This was a Resurrection which achieved that rare feat of mastering the architecture of this sprawling symphony while wringing out all the highs and lows or the journey. The climaxes were suitably cataclysmic, but also adequately paced to leave something in the tank for the last pages. Nor was there any shortage of beauty and stillness elsewhere, with ultra-expressive solo playing allowed to glow in the darkness. Kahchun Wong’s direction remains at once mesmeric and maddening to watch: idiosyncratic in the mould of Kleiber, hyper-literal to the point of occasionally distracting, and yet with steadfastly immaculate ensemble maintained across the huge extended stage. Whatever the secret is, here it works.
The opening movement panned out stunning drama and intense beauty in turn. Horn and woodwind solos (especially flute and cor anglais), and interactions between trumpet and trombone, were all memorable highlights. Later the strings’ clattering col legno heralded a monumental climax, followed by a suitably hushed coda. After a wistfully nostalgic second movement, the Scherzo was a strikingly direct sermon to the fishes, measured and acerbic for the most part, but raucously giddy in its major key outbursts. Wong didn’t hang about in the fourth movement; one might have hoped for Dame Sarah Connolly to be given slightly more space between her superbly beautiful lines, though the forward momentum no doubt added a certain sense of urgency to her message. Her duetting with piccolo was lovely.
The vast paragraphs of the finale unfolded with a remarkably crystalline sense of structural direction. There was no shortage of nuance, with Wong and his players finding plenty of original touches in phrasing and articulation, but where these had felt contrived in their account of Mahler’s First Symphony in September, here they were far better contextualised. After a softly golden brass chorale, the march of the dead strode grimly forwards with unwavering tension, the RLPO’s vast Forever Bells clamouring and haunting woodwind shrieks ripping forth from the stage. The offstage brass and percussion were also strikingly astringent, horns playing with a bright, brassy sound, and cymbals small and rustic. The ensuing catastrophe, the most devastating of the symphony, was breathtaking.
When Matthew Hamilton’s vast chorus finally sang, the seated forces of the Hallé Choir and Youth Choir did so with utmost warmth and solace. The voice of soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, also seated, floated out of this golden choral glow with exquisite soft control. After a monumental command of “Bereite dich” from the men, the symphony’s coda steadily grew in momentum until the most ecstatic of Resurrection hymns. The performance was recorded and filmed by The Hallé; one can only hope that this will be release in due course.
