Superb Mahler in Tucson

[AZContrabassoon]

Yesterday, Sunday, I attended a concert with the Tucson Symphony, George Hanson conductor, giving a thrilling, majestic, powerful Mahler 3rd. The orchestral playing was flawless, the solos (trombone especially) were marvelous. The conductor knew the score and it showed. Tempos were perfectly judged. The off-stage posthorn was beautifully played - very effective. The boys chorus and women were great, the alto just fine, too. Those glorious chords at the end were perfectly balanced and the deep sound sent chills up the spine. The audience rose as one to its feet to acclaim the performance. Top notch Mahler tends to do that.

Why do I relate this local event to the rest of you? Because great Mahler abounds everywhere. You don't need to go to Chicago, LA, Cleveland, Vienna, Berlin or London to hear great Mahler. But there, in dry, warm Tucson Arizona was world-class Mahler. I've heard Mahler live conducted by the likes of Bernstein, Maazel, Dudamel, Salonen, Mehta, Rattle, Tennstedt, Dorati, Abbado and others. George Hanson turned out a performance not one whit inferior to those more famous conductors, and frankly better than most! Just last month he did the chamber version of DLVDE and next year he'll be doing the full orchestral version. If you are looking for great Mahler, make it Tucson in January, 2016. Besides that, you can also get the best Mexican food anywhere in the Old Pueblo. (No, I don't work for the Tucson Symphony - I don't even live in Tucson.)

[barry guerrero]

You're absolute right, and this only goes to prove the current 'Universality' of Mahler's music today. May  the force be with you.

[waderice]

It's too bad that Tucson is quite distant and out of the way for most of us.  I would have liked to been there to hear the M3 performance you describe in such glowing terms.  Baltimore's Symphony Orchestra performed M3 only a month ago, and despite the weather being bad for us in the Philadelphia area at that time, I would have liked to travel the 120 miles to Baltimore to hear them play it, if not to Tucson, had I known it was going to be performed there.

It's definitely in Mahler's favor to be recognized as a composer of the first order.  Considering that demand for performances of his music seemingly isn't going to diminish, plus the fact that music academies are turning out orchestra musicians of such high quality to man the orchestras of lesser known status that can give the more renown orchestras a run for their money, attention needs to be given to Mahler performances in the far-flung regions.  Tucson's M3 performance got mention today as well at the Facebook Mahler Forum.  It only remains for the lesser-known orchestras to hire and maintain music directors who show they are capable of leading Mahler performances that can be just as good as the more renown ones.  Now only if commercial and industrial concerns in Tucson and other cities possessing up and coming orchestras would be willing to underwrite them......

The best to Tucson's orchestra in its future Mahler performances!

Wade

[AZContrabassoon]

Just got home from another superb Mahler performance in Tucson. This time it was the Tucson premiere of Das Lied von der Erde. It was breathtaking. Beautiful, poignant, quite expressive. The opening of the last movement was terrifying. The conductor was their former music director, George Hanson, and brought to the score the same power and dedication he's shown over the last 20 years in the symphonies, all except M10 which he hasn't done yet. A year ago he conducted Das Lied in Tucson in the Stein chamber version - maybe as a warmup?

The pairing was the Tan Dun Cello concerto taken from Crouching Tiger Hidden Lion and it also was very beautiful and its Chinese roots made a flawless introduction for the Mahler.

And it's not over - in March they're doing Todtenfeier. Now if next year they would only do the Cooke version of M10!

[barry guerrero]

"Cooke version of M10!"

If Hanson is THAT good, try talking him into taking a serious look at the Samale/Mazzuca version. We really need a better or different recording than the Martin Sieghart one on Exton.

[AZContrabassoon]

I'd settle for any 10th except the awful Carpenter. That Exton recording - who produced that? Didn't they stop and listen? That drop out is unforgivable, especially at the price of Exton disks. Sieghart is a fine musician, his Schmidt 4th and Bruckner recordings are top-notch. But that Mahler 10th is not what I was hoping for.

[barry guerrero]

The Carpenter version is definitely the most controversial of the lot - it frequently crosses over into the more overtly expressionistic world of Berg. For me, the Wheeler is the least idiomatic and most amateurish sounding version of the lot. I would give almost anything to know what the Wollschlaeger version sounds like, what little that exists of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Wollschl%C3%A4ger


.   .   .  and Wollschlager's Mahler book looks pretty interesting too, for those who can hack their way through the German

http://www.wallstein-verlag.de/9783835305885-hans-wollschlaeger-der-andere-stoff.html