United Kingdom BBC Proms 2025 [9] – Mahler: Mari Eriksmoen (soprano), Emily D’Angelo (mezzo-soprano), Hallé Youth Choir, Hallé Choir, Hallé / Kahchun Wong (conductor). Royal Albert Corridor, London, 2.8.2025. (AV-E)
Mahler – Symphony No.2 in C minor, ‘Resurrection’
Kahchun Wong, the brand new principal conductor of the Hallé, gave the best efficiency I’ve ever heard in live performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No 2 in C minor, ‘Resurrection’: and I’ve heard dozens.
Conducting and not using a rating, Wong had full management of his world-class orchestra throughout a efficiency welded collectively by means of a meretricious consideration to element as if treating each participant as a soloist in their very own proper with the Hallé seemingly proving itself to be the UK’s premier orchestra.
It was a sheer delight watching Wong conduct with such class and aplomb, having a hypnotic maintain over his exemplary gamers. His baton method was as pointed and exacting as Fritz Reiner’s, while his left hand was utilized in varied swish gestures for various devices: flickering his hand for the woodwind, cupping his hand for the strings, and shutting it for the brass: this was not at all an egotistical affectation however a sign-language of distinct communication.
Wong had complete management over the monumental structure of this wayward and sporadic rating the place all of the actions have been completely built-in and unified into an natural entire (as if the symphony have been in a single motion).
Within the first motion Allegro maestoso, Wong made radical tempo fluctuations giving the music an elevated nervous depth similar to a rallentando (slowing down) on the climax of the primary motion growth, which had an amazing visceral impact.
The minuscule and measured broad tempos adopted by Wong on this motion jogged my memory of Sergiu Celibidache, and the way that Romanian maestro could have performed it.
The Andante moderato had a hushed chamber orchestra-like intimacy and delicacy with the strings shimmering with a radiant resonance; which had the attentive viewers completely transfixed in silence: one thing relatively uncommon at such an enormous venue.
The Third motion marked Calmly flowing (In ruhig fliessender Bewegung) was simply that with the Hallé enjoying with an exhilarating enchantment, particularly the incisive timpani and pointed woodwind.
Within the Urlicht (Primal Mild) motion, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo lacked projection and distinction and got here throughout as indifferent from the phrases and devoid of religious expression. By stark distinction, soprano Maria Eriksmoen was expressively expansive and incisively impassioned.
The ultimate motion can typically sound too fragmented and sectionalised, however Wong made it maintain collectively by means of his sheer magnetism of presence and energy of focus.
The fanfares of the offstage bands have been far too close-up shedding the important sense of distance required sounding considerably artificially amplified. The Hallé Refrain and Hallé Youth Choir have been merely elegant which despatched shivers down the backbone.
Wong resurrected Mahler’s Second Symphony from its former lives of ‘Hammer Horror’ histrionics: such was his immaculate conception.
Alexander Verney-Elliott
Featured Picture: Kahchun Wong conducting soloists, choruses and the Hallé in Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony © BBC/Chris Christodoulou
