Review – Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg: Andries Nelsons conducts Mahler’s Ninth | News and Review | PR Classic

The Vienna Philharmonic is the resident orchestra of the Salzburg Festival – they have their own concert series on their program, and they always invite the most important conductors. After Herbert Blomstedt, 45-year-old Latvian Andris Nelsons guested over the weekend and conducted Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony.

It’s a strange feeling to step into the Great Festival Hall from the hustle and bustle of Salzburg on a warm Saturday morning and experience the sudden silence. How one finds absolute peace in the hour and a half that Gustav Mahler spends on his great symphonic work. When the Vienna Philharmonic plays the opening sigh motif of its Ninth Symphony, velvety in the strings and crisp in the wood, it sounds a bit Viennese—after all, Mahler died in Vienna in 1911, two years later. Nevertheless, one must be careful not to reduce the essence of his last completed symphony to “a premonition of death,” as Alban Berg did. Finally, Mahler began with tithes.

Modernity in Mahler’s score

Conductor Andries Nelsons makes the score’s modernism in the direction of the Second Viennese School very audible, harmonically bold and starkly contrasting. But he is no mere analyst, pointing out Mahler’s outbursts and flaws with all the sharpness. As with his recent Munich Bruckner, he favors a soft vocal tone from which the larger climaxes stand out more effectively. Nelson gleefully bubbles up the grandeur of the past in the massive first movement, and Mahler immediately breaks back into nostalgic silliness. Nelson’s Chamber Music enjoys the beauty of the islands even more – and the Vienna Philharmonic enjoys them with devotion.

With Viennese Insults and Vumdatta

Things get more heartfelt in the two middle movements. Like brilliant folk musicians, the Vienna Philharmonic put their best foot forward in the scherzo’s brass Landler and waltz caricatures with Viennese insults and vumdata. But the underlying sense of threat is always there. Mahler then takes it to a climax in a pitch-black rondo burlesque—and Nelson points out this dance of death’s constant ebbs and flows between fair and gallows humor. An incomparable tour of Vienna that draws you in so much you won’t believe your ears.

Mahler’s Ninth Aim and Heart is the final adagio, which Nelson sings brilliantly. A moving string harmony in D flat major introduces this great swan song, featuring aching outbursts—Giuseppe Sinopoli rightly spoke of the “gesture of loss” that can be felt here. At the end, Mahler allows complete silence and “death” to disappear, as stated several times in his Ninth score. Nelsons manages to turn this composed doom into a highly audible pianissimo that evokes a sense of transcendence.

Orchist Andries Nelson promises

This giant on stage, no fuss about himself, is an arch-musician who inspires the Vienna Philharmonic to achieve the highest standards of sound. His interpretation of Mahler is emotionally intense, never falling into empty pathos or sentimentality. The Vienna Philharmonic played at their full strength this morning and they are clearly in Mahler’s world. There is a long silence at the end – and you take a piece of inner peace with you as you plunge back into the turbulent Salzburg city life.

Broadcast: “Allegro” on August 12, 2024 at 6:05 am on BR-KLASSIK