Prom 62: Rattle conducts Mahler’s 6th

Rounding off their second consecutive night at the Proms, conductor Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra delighted the well-attended audience at the Royal Albert Hall with their performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 6. For 86 minutes, there was an atmosphere of contented silence as the audience was enraptured by the emotional intensity of the four movements of the symphony. The piece is filled with incredibly technical musical elements, with frequent variations in tonality, dissonance and dynamics, conveying feelings of joy, pain, fear and love; all deftly led by Rattle. For those of us prone to magical imaginings, it was as if Rattle was waving a wand and facilitating beautiful unity amongst the orchestra. From the purpose and passion of his movements, it was undoubtedly apparent how enamoured Rattle is by the music.

A first-time listener to Mahler’s 6^th would instantly sense how personal and introspective the piece feels. Notably within the Andante movement, where there is a mournful, yet romantic yearning within the richly soft and restrained melodies. It was in this deeply expressive movement where the string and wind instruments shone and tenderly captivated the hearts of the audience, sending collective shivers down spines. There is a certain enigmatic quality to this movement, as if we were listening to the private ponderings of a troubled man. Mahler was a composer who wrote himself and his life into his music and this is prevalent in all of his works. He experienced tragedies and suffering throughout his life; from his troubled childhood, the anti-Semitism he faced and difficulty in gaining the respect of the classical world at the time, and the bereavements in his family life. It is clear that creating music was an outlet for that pain, and with the 6^th being his so-called “Tragic Symphony”, we can hear the complexities of emotions within the music, perfectly captured by Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The power of a classical masterpiece such as this is partly in its ability to remove you from yourself and the occasional banalities of everyday life, wherein the musical ingenuity allows you to be transported. However, it also does the opposite and can help us to address the world and ourselves, by eliciting an emotional response that might be impossible to articulate with words. We might not comprehensively or technically understand the music, but we are invited to share in it, relate to it and feel it. Mahler supposedly was quoted saying that “a symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything”, and the rendition of his 6^th symphony at the Royal Albert Hall certainly did that. It is no wonder that there was rapturous applause from the audience. The Proms, with its packed programme of classical performances, remains a musical treat, and one that we all should experience.

Sunny Morgan
Photos: Chris Christodoulou/BBC

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