Edinburgh International Festival review: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Mahler 3

Published on Wednesday 1 September 2010 20:01

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Mahler 3 ***** Usher Hall, Edinburgh

So far, the final Festival week is turning out to be a cracker, with a magnificent Mahler Third Symphony on Tuesday night to add to other significant triumphs of the Usher Hall series. But with Mariss Jansons and his Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the combined choral forces of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus ladies and Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus (already seasoned in this work through last month's Proms performance with the BBC SSO), the signs were always promising.

And sure enough, Janson's firm hand hit that critically fine balance between precision engineering and lustrous evocation. The massive opening movement was a case in point. Every minuscule aspect of the score was drawn out with pristine definition and a sense of meaty characterisation by the Concertgebouw players, yet the entire sweep of the music had an ebb and flow that captured its emotional journey with overwhelming power.

So we were well set up for the shorter character movements that followed: intoxicating moments in the Tempo di menuetto where Mahler's nod to the Viennese vernacular (melodies so sugary they were surely meant for the Austrian music hall) was almost shockingly perverse; the aching melancholy of Swedish mezzo soprano Anna Larsson in the Adagio setting of Nietzsche; and the unanimous exhilaration of the choruses, diction-perfect and singing impressively from memory.

The orchestra, with its luscious welter of strings, coloured all of this sensuous score with captivating and near-immaculate (a few odd fluffs in the wind and brass, which paled into insignificance) brilliance.