They say you should save the best for last, and in the case of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, this wisdom is built into the music itself. Across five movements of mounting intensity, the composer holds back his grandest revelation until the very end, when voices emerge from the depths of silence, ushering in a transcendent finale. Chief conductor Jaime Martín, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, with augmented forces across all sections, delivered an engaging gala performance that launched the MSO’s 2025 season on Thursday night at Hamer Hall.
Martín’s consistent adherence to the balancing textures of this work, combined with the fine musicians’ focused moments of its rhythmically driven sections, framed the performance of this landmark work. Yet, it was in the symphony’s climactic choral conclusion – an overwhelming moment of radiant sound bathed in golden luminescence – that the night’s magic emerged.
For a work that outwardly embodies the grandest of gestures, the true artistry in performing Mahler’s second symphony lies not in its towering climaxes, but in the journey towards them and the interjecting dramatic intrusions of existential crisis. The work culminates in a transformation of being that renders the previous sonic spectacles mere glittery afterthoughts. Revelatory moments in this performance were always those that showed how Mahler’s orchestration creates contrasts within and between sections of instruments across acoustic space to gradually build tension that reinforce the hero’s current predicament: life and death.
The opening of the first movement (Allegro maestoso) by an enlarged MSO string section featured clear, yet propulsive moments of rhythmic unity, particularly in the low to mid strings. The MSO string section continue to demonstrate their unified sense of clarity of sound – a highlight across all movements and particularly where the driving dotted figures and soaring melodic material established and consistently maintained dramatic tension. Though the first movement of this symphony begins with the shock realisation of death, its magic can be found between this idea and the desire to retreat from this fate back into youthful memory. Jaime Martín’s consistent negotiation of the ways Mahler frames this tension across sections with visual and gestural connection made for a compelling, if somewhat measured, first movement.
The second and third movements can be seen as an expansion of the ideas established in the first movement. The second movement (Andante moderato) presents a world of tender reminiscence, a dreamlike retreat into a past that feels comforting but already distant. This and the third movement (Scherzo) provide stark contrasts to the Beethoven-inspired drive of the first movement as two dance movements are based on the Austrian Ländler. The third movement fractures the idyllic illusion of the second movement, taking the Ländler dance and turning it into grotesque farce. Mahler repurposes musical material in this movement from his Lied “Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt” (“St. Anthony of Padua’s Sermon to the Fish”) from his Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn) Lieder. Like the evocation of St. Anthony when one seeks needs divine assistance to search for a lost valuable, Mahler implies that we are like fish – we fail to understand or comprehend life’s meaning. The music becomes more unstable and sarcastic, shifting unpredictably between lightness and increasing interjections of menace that depict the intrusion of the reality of suffering – perhaps the fish are starting to listen? The MSO’s precision is on point here in the clear negotiation of some complex scoring that expresses a consistently shifting dramatic perspective, where the sense of existential disorientation reinforces the deeper conflict at the heart of the symphony – between faith, uncertainty, and the absurdity of life. Martín and the orchestra presented a tightly woven fabric that successfully negotiated the abrupt dynamic contrasts with ensemble precision.
The voice of divine transformation in this work begins with the mezzo-soprano in the fourth movement: “Urlicht” – Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht (“Primal Light” – Very solemn, but simple). The fact that Mahler consistently utilises the alto voice to proclaim the heart of his artistic visions seems to be intentional. The use of solo voices in this work would continue in subsequent larger works, as is the reworking of previous material from his Lieder. Sung with poise and a sense of total commitment, Scottish mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison’s focused tone and simple delivery of the text from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn Lieder was a profound yet intimate moment that stripped away the irony and disillusionment of the previous movement.
The Resurrection Symphony contains numerous motifs; Mahler doesn’t merely repeat motifs, he subjects them to evolutionary development in a kind of spiral. As the subtitle implies, resurrection is not possible without transformation. The “fate” motif, the Urlicht chorale-like theme, and even the scherzo’s swirling patterns all reappear in the finale, yet their meanings shift. The MSO brass players need to be congratulated for their consistent tone in the chorales. As an ensemble, the sweetness of the harmonies produced in the on-stage brass band contrasted effectively with some electrifying sounds at tutta forza sections. Tutti sections in the finale were soaring, though at times the strings were inaudible – perhaps this is forgivable given the massive forces involved.
The highlight of the evening was revelatory. The MSO chorus, under chorus director Warren Trevelyan-Jones, emerged from the chaos of suffering as a wellspring that birthed a golden sound. Themes of individual redemption, transformation and a universal, cosmic rebirth, adapted from Klopstock’s Resurrection Ode with additions from Mahler’s own poetic verse, were given a truly worthy voice in this chorus – from memory. With the addition of Australian soprano Eleanor Lyons, the choral singing transformed the evening in tone, expression and clarity. The fully voiced entries form the choir on the phrase, “Was vergangen auferstehen” (“All that has died must rise again”), launched the final section of the finale of this performance into the cosmos!
Photo credit: Laura Manariti
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Stephen Marino reviewed the 2025 Ryman Healthcare Season Opening Gala: Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, presented by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall on February 27, 2025
