For a composer as earth-shattering and heaven-splitting as Gustav Mahler, the Australian World Orchestra’s three-hour extravaganza presentation of the German composer’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies proved a fittingly titanic affair.
From even the most basically practical standpoint, the event posed a challenge just to get to the seating area. Every available square foot of carpet space was filled with shuffling feet, slowly navigating the mass of surrounding attendees. I have been to more concerts within Hamer Hall than I can begin to count, and never has an event attracted so packed a crowd as this.
When I did eventually inch to my seat, the stage presence of the orchestra was a further sight to behold, in this instance crammed to every possible edge with orchestra members. Indeed, the tightness of the players’ proximity to one another mirrored the density of attendees spread across every row of the audience pit and upper balconies.
Other clues to this event’s being well beyond anything else were detailed in the six telescopic-lens cameras positioned throughout the hall, capturing the action from every conceivable angle. The broadsheet-sized programme notes, also, finished in high-sheen glossy card, featured a lengthy introductory greeting from none other than Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
In all respects, then, ‘Mahlerfest’ proved a blockbuster presentation of work by a decidedly heavy-duty composer. No performance of Mahler can ever be merely by-the-by, for even the most pedestrian interpretation of his symphonies will illicit some degree of pulverising emotional reaction.
Last night’s performance, however, operated on the most grandiose scale of anything I have seen of the German grandmaster’s work.
Under the baton of conductor Alexander Briger, there was just such an immense array of vigour and dynamic range, sweeping between triumph and heartbreak with seamless balance and smoothness. The overall effect of Briger’s command of such a mammoth assembly of players was that of immaculate, rounded smoothness, of an annihilating cleanliness of sound.
As such, the only feasible way to describe ‘Mahlerfest’ is as purely experiential. It was difficult, even, to scribble notes during the performance, such was the enormity of its beguiling power.
The sheer size and scale of the orchestra’s force, packing out every possible square inch of the stage, created a glamorous wave of sound so overwhelmingly romantic and ecstatically colourful that it was hard to draw one’s attention from it.
Mahler, uniquely among more recognisably modern composers, is best enjoyed live and such was the case here. In all elements of sound and vision, this was a classical concert as theatrical as it was musical.
The German word of 'Mahlerfest' translates as ‘Mahler celebration’, and how fitting a title for as heroic a showcase of the composer’s best-loved works as was seen last night.
