Salomon Past Concerts

Tuesday 6th February 2007 at St John's Smith Square

Conductor Robin O'Neill Leader Tara Persaud

Mahler Symphony No. 6 in A minor

'...the concert was a resounding success...This first movement had fire and direct communication; in addition balance was excellent and detail was vivid...the Andante was beautifully done, genuinely heartfelt and emotionally outpouring.'

'The finale, too, was unerringly charted...The closing bars, with some very sensitive brass-playing, was suitably doom-laden and ‘final’ – until O’Neill...unleashed a devastatingly unanimous trump card in the form of a crushing fortissimo... The silence that ensued was also compelling. A memorable performance.'

See the whole review by Colin Anderson at the Classical Source.

'I cannot quibble when it describes itself as London’s leading non-professional orchestra...Throughout the Finale the virtuosity of these non-professionals remained exemplary...it was a worthwhile evening of music making for all concerned and perhaps an invitation to many in the audience to delve further into Mahler’s music.'

Jim Pritchard for Seen and Heard Concert Review.

Alban Berg wrote to Anton Webern that Mahler's was 'the only sixth, despite the "Pastoral"'. (Salomon's 43rd season also includes Prokofiev's 6th, but that was after Berg...). Alma Mahler said 'The Sixth is the most profoundly personal of his works...'. It is also a very large work, with the orchestra including quintuple wind, 8 horns, 6 trumpets, and for the first time in his orchestration a xylophone, celesta, and a 'hammer' (whose strokes were to be 'short, mighty...like the stroke of an axe').

During composition (1903-1904) Mahler was having increasing success at the Vienna Court Opera, was becoming recognised as a symphony composer, and celebrated the birth of his second daughter 'Gucki' (Anna). Alma attributed the contradictory tragic nature of the 6th symphony as autobiographical but written in advance of events, with the 3 famous original hammer blows of fate in the finale as prescient of his losing his post at Vienna, the death of his first daughter, and the diagnosis of his weak heart. The final hammer blow was to strike down the hero as an axe fells a tree: Mahler removed this apparently for structural reasons, although the work effected him so deeply there may be an element of not tempting fate too far. Mahler died of heart failure in 1911 before completing his 10th symphony.

Mahler eschewed names and programmes for his symphonies after 1900. The title 'Tragische' did not appear at the première in Essen in 1906, nor in the original scores nor Zemlinksy's piano duet transcription of 1906, but it appeared at the Viennese première of 1907 and has been associated with it ever since.

Orchestration

Mahler

5[1.2.3/pic.4/pic.pic]5[1.2.3/Eh.Eh] 5[1.2.3.Ebcl.bcl] 5[1.2.3.4.cbn] - 8641 - tmp+5  - 2hp - cel - str perc: glock, xyl, sd, tamtam, bd, herdbells, hammer, 3tri, 2sd, tmp 2, 3pr cym, rute, deep bell off

We are grateful to the Mahler Society for helping publicise this concert. See their website via our Links page.

Click for the original handbill for this concert.

Robin O'Neill is Principal Conductor of Orchestra Citta Aperta and Music Director of The Motion Group. Recently he has conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Nordic Chamber Orchestra.

'St John’s was brimful of musicians and listeners!' - The Classical Source

Salomon previously performed Mahler's 6th Symphony in 1979 with Simon Rattle. See our repertoire pages for everything we have played.

©Salomon Orchestra

2007

President Martyn Brabbins - Vice President Oliver Taylor - Leader Anna Ritchie - Registered Charity No. 256753