Music
BBC SSO/Runnicles
City Halls, Glasgow
Michael Tumelty
Five Stars
THE proof was in the playing. I’ve never required convincing about the validity of Deryck Cooke’s construction of a performing version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony, left in a sketched condition by the composer at his death, but with masses of clues as to his intentions. I’ve been living with it for decades, but only through recorded versions.
To hear it live on Thursday, in one of Donald Runnicles’ greatest performances with the SSO, was shattering. You could almost sense Mahler’s own voice, authentic and instantly recognisable at any given moment, while, at the same time, forging forward with new, almost horrendous levels of dissonance, an enormous pressure on any remaining, stabilising force of tonality, which teetered under the onslaught, and an ever-increasing intensity of aching, emotional expression. It was like being catapulted into a world of “what if”. Where would Mahler have gone next? He was only 51 when he died in 1911. And that was a critical, seminal moment in music history; food for thought, following Thursday night’s un-self-conscious, mind-blowing performance.
But Runnicles was not alone. Isn’t it time we just came out and declared James Ehnes one of the greatest violinists of the day? He’s totally free of show business. Time after time he comes on, does the business with the music, as he did on Thursday with a lusciously-melodic account of Glazunov’s Violin Concerto, never misses a beat, and simply plays better than anyone else I know. And he seems such a nice guy. You know what he did on Thursday? After his concerto, he sat himself anonymously among the SSO strings, for the rare opportunity of playing in Mahler 10. Isn’t that lovely?
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