The power of live music: SLSO performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 2

Lydia McKelvie | Contributing Writer

Powell Hall is filled with silence. The fourth movement ends, and the chorus stands. The entire stage is packed with musicians ready to perform. The conductor raises his baton. The audience is ready for a massive wave of sound. Instead, they hear a single violin, then a single voice. Then many instruments, and many voices, until it builds to a point that the two are indistinguishable. The sound is indeed massive, and I think that this moment is what live music was made for.

Gustav Mahler, the composer of this symphony, was an Austrian composer in the late Romantic period. His work is known for its extreme emotion, themes of life and death and the huge ensemble required to play it. A non-practicing Jewish composer, he lived in a time of rising anti-Semitism and converted to Catholicism later in life, although his true beliefs and faith are largely unknown. This spiritual ambiguity takes center stage in this symphony, which has been interpreted in wildly different ways since its completion in 1895.

The piece, often called the “Resurrection Symphony,” is organized in five movements outlining the process of grief, the celebration of love, the chaos of life, the hope of salvation and the resurrection of the dead. The emotional journey is intense, to say the least. Soaring soprano solos and huge choral backing add a level of opera likely drawn from the composer’s time working in as an operatic apprentice. This is also reflected in the incredible drama and emotionality of the piece, which kept the audience on the edge of their seats much like the story of an excellent opera would.

The SLSO’s conductor, Stephane Deneve, certainly channeled this drama in his conducting style—passionate and intense—which shone in this symphony. He actively interacted with the drastic range in emotionality, treating the love theme with delicacy and the erupting finale with an explosion of motion—so much so that I was afraid he might fall off his podium! His work, combined with the work of Amy Kaiser as St. Louis Symphony Chorus director, created a product brimming with rawness and energy.

In addition to the roaring power of the Symphony Chorus, the piece also included two guest artists: Joelle Harvey, soprano and Tamara Mumford, mezzo-soprano. Mumford was asked to replace the original mezzo-soprano scheduled to perform at the last minute due to the latter’s illness, but that certainly didn’t stop her from bringing incredible sound, dynamic sensitivity and poignant connection to the text to this performance. Harvey’s soaring, light soprano was perfection in combination with the warmth of Mumford’s voice. As I listened, I was completely transported to the world of their music and the story of two lost souls in the search for salvation and the absolution of their goals.

As an audience member brought along on the journey, I felt I had experienced an absolution as well. The emotional epic was complete, and it truly brought me through the highs and lows of the human experience in just over 80 minutes. Given the reactions and the total concentration from the people around me, I would imagine that I was not alone in that.

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