Review | Mahler’s Third provides stirring season finale

Posted May 23, 2017 at 11:45 AM
Updated May 23, 2017 at 11:45 AM

By Jennifer Hambrick For The Columbus Dispatch

The final concert of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s 2016-17 season saw one of Gustav Mahler’s most profound masterworks in a stellar performance dedicated to the memory of a passionate supporter of classical music.

As the orchestra’s musicians walked onstage to perform Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, each placed a single rose in a basket on the floor to the right of the podium. The flowers remained on the stage throughout the concert as a reminder of the late Anne Melvin, whose financial and emotional support of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra have helped ensure the ensemble’s survival and artistic growth.

Music director Rossen Milanov led the orchestra steadfastly through the compendium of marches that comprise the symphony’s first movement. The opening funeral march started off a bit timidly, though with impressive trumpet flourishes complemented by some lovely lyrical playing later in the movement.

Milanov and the orchestra captured the character of the triumphal marches and the more ebullient parade-like marches as they came, with bold and nuanced playing.

The extended trombone solos throughout the movement rang forth at bold moments as thought heralding Judgment Day and sang, at more subdued moments, with great sensitivity.

In Milanov’s hands, the second movement minuet was delicate, then diabolical, with sparkling interplay among solos in the winds and strings. Like the lightest Viennese whipped cream, the movement’s conclusion bubbled into thin air.

In the third movement, an extended lyrical trumpet solo wafted like a lullaby over shimmering strings. Throughout the movement, the woodwinds were convincing forest birds, even if they might have shone more brightly through more committed and stylish playing.

From scarcely a rumble in the low strings, mezzo-soprano soloist Kelley O’Connor’s voice emerged in the fourth movement round and umbrous, climbing eventually into a radiant upper range. Solos on the violin, oboe and horns had the feel of improvisation in Mahler’s dreamy accompaniment.

The Columbus Children’s Chorus (Jeanne Wohlgamuth, artistic director) and the women of the Columbus Symphony Chorus (Ron Jenkins, director) together brought a nice, angelic sound to the fifth movement, where O’Connor once again soared.

In a performance full of fine conducting, the entire final movement showed Milanov at his best, translating his profound interpretation of Mahler’s sublime artistic vision into gestures that opened the door for the orchestra’s finest, most ethereal playing. When Mahler’s score called for more outward emotion, Milanov asked the orchestra to give just the right bit more, pacing the movement in great arcs, and unhurried, to its triumphant conclusion. The performance received a well-deserved standing ovation.

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