Mahler’s Symphony no. 6 in A minor remains an outlier in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s repertoire, despite Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s passionate embrace of the composer. Prior to this week, the Philadelphians last played the Sixth in a non-subscription concert in 2016; the most recent previous subscription performance was in 2012. As often happens when this ensemble approaches material outside their usual catalogue, the musicians delivered a strikingly original and startlingly exciting interpretation that rested on an individual approach to Mahler’s sound.
Nézet-Séguin likes his Mahler without an ounce of fat on the bone. This style might not be for everyone, but it makes for a welcome contrast applied to an orchestra that has sometimes worked to smooth out the composer’s rough edges. If you put stock in the symphony’s appliquéd subtitle, “Tragic”, you could come away disappointed – this was not a reading that swelled with excess emotion. Taut and urgent, it privileged a sense of foreboding danger rather than enveloping lachrymosity. Stripped of rubato, Nézet-Séguin kept up a tightly controlled rhythmic pulse that at times felt relentless, but always seemed in service of how he imagined the music should flow.
The weighty opening of the Allegro energico grabbed the listener by the throat, a barnstorming introduction that rose from the low strings before hurtling itself to the brass and woodwinds. The violins sometimes provide a lyrical contrast here, but under Nézet-Séguin’s direction, they exhaled heaving sighs that offered little sense of relief. This march spoke of a battle already lost. In the same vein, the so-called “Alma” theme was less a contrast than a continuation of the manic mood engendered throughout the movement. Nézet-Séguin’s decision to return the Scherzo: Wuchtig to the second-movement space – more often now you get the Andante there – further deepened the mood of satire and irony that dripped all over the piece. Again, even the Trio, allegedly meant to evoke children frolicking, sounded disquieted rather than playful.
It’s hard to make the Andante seem sinister – it’s one of the most purely beautiful movements Mahler ever conceived, right up there with the Fifth’s Allegretto. Nézet-Séguin made it fit within his conception of the symphony by reducing the orchestral volume to a near whisper, forcing the audience to lean in and appreciate their reprieve. Then the Allegro moderato provided a whirling mass of musical ideas, while also revealing a keen attention to detail – the hammer blows truly sounded like axe strokes, forceful but bland, as Mahler intended. Nézet-Séguin maintained the thread throughout this long closing statement, putting the listener on the edge of their seat until the final moment. If the ending felt not like catharsis, it did evoke relief at coming through a sometimes exasperating journey. The cacophony turned to silence for just a moment before the raucous applause began.
