Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, CBSO, Ono, Symphony Hall Birmingham | reviews, news & interviews
Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, CBSO, Ono, Symphony Hall Birmingham
Mahler's Resurrection Symphony, CBSO, Ono, Symphony Hall Birmingham
A century on from the day of his death, the composer is deliriously resurrected
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Kazushi Ono, a conductor whose poise between rhythmic rigour and late-Romantic phrasing is a joy to watch Eisuke Miyoshi
Gustav Mahler died, according to his wife Alma’s memoirs, at midnight on 18 May, 1911. Anyone mystically inclined to connect noughts and "o"s – you see it crossed my mind – might find some spooky link between 00:00 (pedantically, the time of death was 23:05) and the fact that, for this centenary concert, indisposed conductor OramO (Sakari) was belatedly replaced by OnO (Kazushi). What transpired was delight – near-delirium, in fact – that a supreme master had total control of the composer’s Second (Resurrection) Symphony: a theatrical celebration of life and death rather than a transcendental meditation, but a masterpiece still, if perfectly realised.
Gustav Mahler died, according to his wife Alma’s memoirs, at midnight on 18 May, 1911. Anyone mystically inclined to connect noughts and "o"s – you see it crossed my mind – might find some spooky link between 00:00 (pedantically, the time of death was 23:05) and the fact that, for this centenary concert, indisposed conductor OramO (Sakari) was belatedly replaced by OnO (Kazushi). What transpired was delight – near-delirium, in fact – that a supreme master had total control of the composer’s Second (Resurrection) Symphony: a theatrical celebration of life and death rather than a transcendental meditation, but a masterpiece still, if perfectly realised.
Ono had guided us on to a higher plane, with luminous onstage horns lining the awed response to the four offstage sounding the last trump
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