A funeral march that refuses to mourn, a Scherzo that cannot decide whether to dance or collapse, an Adagietto so exposed it has become the most misread ten minutes in the symphonic canon: Mahler's Fifth Symphony is a work that has been burying its own conclusion for over 70 minutes before it finally arrives. Joana Mallwitz and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin understood, mapping the entire evening as a journey whose destination was never in doubt, only the cost of getting there.
Before that Mahler journey began, Alice Sara Ott brought a different kind of clarity to the stage. In Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, her approach was a deeply lyrical, vocal cantabile. Ott leaned into a natural spontaneity, navigating sectional transitions with unexpected, breathing nuances. Her touch was agile and her use of the pedal exceptionally restrained, keeping most textures crisp and natural save for the extensive first-movement cadenza, where she allowed a long, suspended resonance to linger dramatically.
Under the batonless, highly fluid hand gestures of Joana Mallwitz, the smaller-scaled orchestra matched Ott's light-hearted playing with precision. The orchestra's lean articulation clipped the phrasing of the outer movements into short, punchy units, making the contrasting Largo feel all the more vast with its continuous, sustained line. This expansive landscape reached its peak just before the recapitulation of the main piano solo theme.
After intermission, Mahler’s monumental Fifth Symphony was explored as a definitive ‘finale symphony’, its three distinct sections being steered toward the ultimate closing movement. In the beginning cold, unyielding Trauermarsch, the incisive brass sliced directly through the heavy texture, steering the lament straight into the turbulent chaos of the Stürmisch bewegt. Here, Mallwitz traced the symphony's overarching dramaturgy beautifully: a sudden, hymn-like chorale broke through with jubilant power – marked as the climax in the score – only to collapse within bars as the stormy motifs rushed back to reclaim the space, revealing it as a tragic illusion.
The massive Scherzo provided an expansive psychological axis, in contrast with the solid first movement. Powered by dance-like momentum, Mallwitz transformed the music into a swirling kaleidoscope that vividly realised Mahler's sonic ocean, swinging between warm Ländler cheerfulness and grotesque distortions.
Then arrived a world of relative peace: the famous Adagietto served as an exquisite island of rapture. Scored strictly for harp and strings, the artistic choice here stripped away any excessive sentimental vibrato, opting for a fluid tempo and a soulful simplicity. This serenity shattered with the rustic woodwind calls of the Rondo-Finale. Mallwitz unleashed the orchestra’s full power through intricate, energetic fugal sections handled with uncompromising, muscular clarity. When the redeeming chorale finally returned at the end, the tempo was pushed to the near edge. Then, as a final stroke, the entire monument plunged down through a dizzying whole-tone scale across three octaves, abruptly shattering the solemnity. By embracing these complex cross-movement subversions, Mallwitz delivered the audience a direct, nearly bodily demonstration of this work, which any textual analysis can hardly do the job.
This concert was promoted by DK Deutsche Klassik
