The outstanding American mezzo Susan Graham joins Andris Nelsons, the BSO, and the women of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus for Mahler's Third Symphony, which, along with his Symphony No. 2, exemplifies the composer's ambitious expansion of the symphonic genre. This is the second of Mahler's trio of "Wunderhorn" symphonies (Nos. 2-4) employing text from the folk-poetry collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The six-movement symphony is divided into two parts. Part I is a massive, 30-plus-minute opening movement representing a Bacchic procession celebrating the arrival of summer. Part II (movements 2 through 6) is a series of character pieces representing the responses of, in turn, wild flowers, animals of the forest, mankind itself, angels, and the spirit of love.(Some emphasis added.)
The reviews in the Globe and in the Boston Musical Intelligencer are detailed and highly favorable. I was there for the Thursday performance and enjoyed it. It's a massive work, but there is very little that seemed superfluous. I was very impressed with the playing all around, especially a fine trombone solo and the offstage posthorn solo.
I definitely recommend listening this evening at 8:00, Eastern Time, over WCRB. On Monday at 8L00 you can hear a rebroadcast of last week's concert of Webern, Bartók, and Stravinsky. The following Monday, this will be rebroadcast.
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