Under the direction of Jaap van Zweden, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra gave an engrossing performance of a symphony that is challenging to all involved: Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. In addition to performing it this weekend at Symphony Center, Zweden and the CSO will travel to Amsterdam next month to perform it and the Sixth Symphony at the third Mahler Festival. This will be one stop in a larger CSO tour of Europe. It will also be a homecoming for Zweden, who was born in Amsterdam.
This symphony’s five movements contain some of Mahler’s most obstruse melodies and dense harmonies. Written at the start of the 20th Century, when classical composers were exploring alternative tonalities, this symphony is as close to atonal as Mahler ever gets. Even within traditional tonalities, however, the Seventh Symphony often sounds warped and tilted. Yet, when things do get most dicey, Mahler always finds a way back to cheerfulness. It is also long. Clocking in at approximately 80 minutes, the Seventh Symphony was the only thing on the program Thursday night.
This Symphony requires a huge orchestra. The CSO brought in six horn players and eight other brass players on trumpets, trombones, a tuba, and a tenor horn. The woodwind section was also large, including two piccolos and several baritone and bass instruments. The larger string section required a guitar and mandolin, neither of which were amplified. Two harps were also present. Keeping the beat were seven percussionists playing timpani, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, chimes, cowbells, glockenspiel, and other gadgets.
Some things that were not needed were a choir or solo voices. Lacking any vocals, Mahler’s Seventh Symphony requires fewer performers than other Mahler symphonies. But having so many instruments spread across the stage created an engrossing spectacle.
On Thursday Jaap van Zweden was the masseuse who rubbed it all together. Generally, the outcome was great, but there were some balance issues mainly toward the end of the opening movement, when Mahler calls on the brass big time. Sometimes it was hard to hear the woodwinds, and even some percussion struggled to sound. A couple of glockenspiel passages were practically inaudible. These problems soon went away, and the glockenspiel was very clear in the finale.
There were many things to like about the performance. Over plodding sounds from the bass instruments, the tenor horn sounded the strange opening melody, which is comprised of several three-note motifs melded together for a longer theme. Throughout, Zweden carefully demarcated the tension in the opening themes and the lightness from the secondary themes. This came through big time when the harps hailed a calming moment of reflection.
While not always heard in the opening movement, the woodwinds sounded large in the second, which is the first of two movements labeled Night Music. This movement is supposed to be emoting night time, but it is surprisingly sunny. It has lots of interplay between the string bases and other instruments. This is then followed by a rickety Scherzo on which Zweden and the CSO were tight.
The fourth movement is the second with the Night Music label. This one uses a scaled down orchestra, with fewer winds and brass. It allowed Steve Roberts to play a guitar and CSO violinist Simon Michal to play mandolin that Zweden ensured were heard clearly. This movement and others presented plenty of solo opportunities for concertmaster Robert Chen on violin, Teng Li on viola, John Sharp on cello, Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson on flute, Stephen Williamson on clarinet, William Welter on oboe, and Mark Almond on horn. These are all the principals of their various sections.
Culminating the evening was the raucous rondo finale in the sunny key of C-Major, which, as is common in Mahler, is not the key in which the piece started. Baton in his right hand, Zweden connected all the moving pieces to create a delightful finish.
While the Seventh Symphony is not my favorite piece by Mahler, it was real treat to hear this engrossing performance. Jaap van Zweden and the CSO will be performing it again at Symphony Center tonight, Saturday, April 19, 2024, 7:30pm. For more information, click here.
To hear more Mahler, the CSO's next music director Klaus Mäkelä will be leading the CSO in the Third Symphony at Symphony Center next weekend, April 24-26, 2025. For more information, click here. While not performing the Third Symphony in Amsterdam, they will be performing it during the European tour.