A celestial Mahler Fourth highlights the San Francisco Symphony season

By Truman C. Wang
September 28, 2003

Michael Tilson Thomas conducting

Laura Claycomb, soprano
San Francisco Symphony

Saturday, September 27, 2003 at the Davies Symphony Hall

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – There was singing last night at the Davies Symphony Hall, the like of which hadn’t been heard at the Opera House across the street since the start of the season.  Soprano Laura Claycomb, substituting for the originally scheduled Christine Schäfer, brought a glimpse of the heavens (both Mozart’s and Mahler’s) with her delightful coloratura and graceful lyricism.  The San Francisco Symphony, under Michael Tilson Thomas, played as one glorious instrument that traversed Mahler’s heavenly garden with honeyed tones and feathery lightness.

The oddball selection on the program was Ernst Toch’s Bunte Suite, a hodgepodge of nachtmusik and carnival gaiety which, despite the best efforts from the orchestra, sounded rather earthbound and forgettable.

Mozart’s celebrated motet Exsultate, Jubilate was originally written for a castrato renowned for his bravura technique.  Its lengthy orchestral introduction anticipates that of “Marten aller arten” from Entführung aus dem Serail written some 15 years later.  Ms. Claycomb sailed through the bravura passages in “Alleluja” like a dragonfly dancing on water.  The andante movement “Tu virginum corona” found Ms. Claycomb at her best:  the meltingly soft high notes, the stylish, graceful phrasing.  But the most memorable, I think, was the way she ended the last line “unde suspirat cor” with a perfectly-turned trill joining the cadential notes in seamless legato.  To me, that was a nascent sign of greatness.

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 depicts a child’s vision of heaven that is more Oktoberfest-ish than devotional – a life in heaven (“das himmlische leben”) replete with earthly pleasures of wine and garden vegetables.  Exactly why Mahler became obsessed with the lowly folk poems of Des Knaben Wunderhorn is not clear.   What’s clear, however, is the immense skill and celestial beauty woven into every bar of the Fourth Symphony.  The San Francisco Symphony musicians responded to this heavenly rapture (and the exigencies of a live recording) with every fiber of their beings, producing a magic carpet of string sounds that floated and shimmered to one’s delight.  Ms. Claycomb’s contribution in the fourth movement was pure-toned and unforced, perfectly capturing the childlike innocence at the heart of the movement and, indeed, the whole symphony. 

This concert was recorded for future CD release on the San Francisco Symphony's own label.  For tickets to other concerts of the 2003-2004 season, call (415) 864-6000 or visit www.sfsymphony.org

 

Truman C. Wang is editor of Classical Voice.

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