When Sir Simon Rattle took to the podium in Verizon Hall on Wednesday evening, the Philadelphia audience greeted him like the prodigal son coming home after a long absence – and with good reason. Rattle established a strong bond with the city as a frequent guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, to the point where he was offered the chance to succeed Wolfgang Sawallisch as Music Director (he ultimately declined). Once a near-seasonal fixture, Rattle had not been heard locally since 2016, with both the pandemic and a busy schedule keeping him mostly in Europe. It was clear before a note was sounded that many had been missing Rattle’s particularly idiosyncratic style in these parts – a number of audience members stood and cheered upon his appearance – and the maestro led a performance of probing intelligence and hurtling momentum as only he can.
As with his last Philadelphia appearance, Rattle programmed one of his calling cards: Mahler’s Symphony no. 6 in A minor, “Tragic”. This time, though, he brought along the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, of which he is now Chief Conductor. The performance served as a brilliant conclusion to a series that is bringing international visiting orchestras back to the city’s premier concert hall, and the urgent, almost guttural sound of the BRSO provided a sharp contrast to the more lyrical approach to Mahler that Philadelphia audiences have grown accustomed to.
Anyone who follows Rattle knows that he thinks in extremes, but in the symphony’s first movement, this translated to a perfect study in balance. He built the march that opens the Allegro energico to an almost inexorable frenzy. Trumpets blared and woodwinds virtually snarled above the weighty low strings. Other conductors have perhaps brought a greater sense of mystery to this opening, but for sheer force of sound and surety of direction, Rattle was hard to best. He then fostered a wonderful, relaxed quality in the “Alma” theme before diving back into the triumphant ending. In a canny choice, Rattle placed the movement’s cowbells offstage, which produced an ethereal, otherworldly effect, utterly devoid of kitsch.
Following a more modern custom, Rattle returned the Andante moderato to the second-movement slot, producing an oasis of calm amid the rest of the symphony’s agitation. The Scherzo: Wuchtig contained a fair amount of elegance and wit, particularly in the movement’s first trio, although it sounded less altväterisch, to use the composer’s term, in Rattle’s hands then a precursor to the more modern ideas of the finale. Despite the hair-trigger shifts required, the strings maintained superb intonation, and there were fine contributions from oboe and horn.
The Allegro moderato was launched without pause, and Rattle fostered the movement as a portrait of an unquiet mind, its fragmentary ideas coming close to cohesion without ever fully resolving. Even the more poetic passages took on a foreboding weightiness, building to a final pizzicato statement that dripped with world-weariness. Although it's Mahler’s Seventh that is known colloquially as the “Song of the Night”, it doesn’t get much darker than this. Throughout this section, the BRSO percussionists handled their myriad duties with thunderous resonance, but always with deep thought behind the sound.
And yes, the famous hammer blows appropriately shook the rafters, as though someone had snuck Thor’s hammer into the auditorium. What else would you expect from the world’s most famous percussionist turned conductor?
