March 14, 15, and 16, 2025
Bass Hall
Fort Worth, Texas – USA
Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano, conductor.
Gustav MAHLER: Symphony No. 9
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs | 17 MAR 2025
In preparing to review a performance of Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 9, played by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of music director Robert Spano, this very droll movie quote popped into my mind:
“Wouldn’t you just die without Mahler?”
It is from Educating Rita, a 1983 British comedy directed by Lewis Gilbert based on Willy Russell’s 1980 play.
This line’s humorous lampooning of intellectual pretension aside, the quote adds a dash of mordancy when thinking about Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. It is a massive musical masterpiece permeated with the conception of demise. It is not about death per se. No, it is about the process of dying.
Mahler started work on the symphony in 1909, a bad time for the composer. The recent death of his daughter was a debilitating blow. But, that tragedy was combined with the cumulative effect of rampant anti-Semitism, a major career upset, and real health problems. Because of the seriousness of his congenital heart condition, the 50-year-old composer knew that he had little time left. In fact, he died shortly after completing this symphony, never having heard it performed.
This brings us to the amazing performance on Saturday evening in Fort Worth’s Bass Performance Hall. Like the superb reading of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony a year ago by these same forces, reviewed here, what we heard was once again definitive.
Maestro Spano is a workman-like conductor. He eschews the podium flash we so frequently see (which sometimes does more harm than good). Instead, like a gifted artisan, he has a solid concept of the entire piece and how every note fits into that, like tiny bits of stained glass that combine into a magnificent window.
Mahler was a conductor by trade, so his understanding of how to write for such a large orchestra was legendary. Here, he asks for a huge orchestra including four flutes and piccolo, four oboes and English horn, three clarinets, E♭ clarinet and bass clarinet, four bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, triangle, glockenspiel, chimes, and strings.
However, to pull his symphonies off as intended, they require the most accomplished players and a sensitive conductor so as not to let the texture sound overloaded and allow all of the abundant details to shine through. This is exactly what occurred on Saturday evening. All the instrumentalists responded to Spano’s careful ministrations with nearly perfect precision.
In addition to the excellence of the full ensemble, all of the principal players delivered fine performances, displaying excellent intonation, balance, and ensemble, seamlessly handing phrases back and forth between them. The dynamic range went from incredibly soft to blazing climatic moments, all in proportion to each other. As always, there were a few minor and barely noticeable missteps here and there, but that is the joy of a live performance as opposed to a highly edited recording.
Despite the combination of length and lack of an intermission, the audience didn’t appear restless or seem to lose concentration. Spano caught our attention with the opening measures and carefully led us through the symphony’s dark complexities to its hushed expiration some 80+ minutes later. After the almost inaudible final notes sounded, there was absolute silence in the hall for an extended period of time until Spano lowered his hands to give us permission to react.
What followed was quite an ovation. ■
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, led by music director Robert Spano, performing Gustav Mahler’s ‘Symphony No. 9.’ (credit: Karen Almond)
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra: fwsymphony.org
- Robert Spano: robertspanomusic.com
Read more by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.
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