Maher’s ninth on the CSO, 2023

This Week in Classical Music: June 12, 2023.  Maher’s 9^th on the CSO.  Jakub Hrůša, a Czech conductor, got here to Chicago to carry out one work, Mahler’s Ninth, his final accomplished symphony.  Any efficiency of this work by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an occasion, and so was the live performance this previous Thursday.  The CSO doesn’t play the Ninth typically: the final efficiency on the Symphony Middle was 5 years in the past, beneath the route of Esa-Pekka Salonen, an exquisite Finnish conductor and the present San Francisco Symphony music director.  However we vividly keep in mind it being performed in December of 1995 when Pierre Boulez led the orchestra in a profound studying.   Boulez and the CSO then recorded it at Medinah Temple and obtained a Grammy for it.  These had been the occasions when Grammys had been price one thing.  By the best way, Riccardo Muti, the outgoing Music Director, has by no means carried out this symphony, or, so far as we all know, some other of Mahler’s, aside from his youthful no. 1. 

Jakub Hrůša is 41 years previous and considerably of a late-rising star.  After conducting a number of orchestras in his native Czech Republic for a number of years, in 2016 he was made the chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, one in all Germany’s higher orchestras.  The next yr he was appointed as one in all two principal visitor conductors of the Philharmonia Orchestra, London.  In 2021 he was made the principal visitor conductor of the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.  Hrůša’s huge break got here in 2022, when he was appointed the music director designate of the Royal Opera Home (the Covent Backyard), with the formal appointment as Music Director coming in 2025.

However what concerning the efficiency in Chicago?  We wish to preface our transient evaluation with this: we predict that no efficiency by a serious orchestra could be unhealthy nowadays (this was not the case 40 years in the past).  What we imply is that Mahler’s music incorporates a lot materials, each at any given second and in temporal relation to one another, that even when sure episodes should not completed very effectively, there’s nonetheless an infinite quantity of substance to overwhelm the listener.  For instance, beneath Hrůša’s baton, the opening bars and the primary “respiratory theme” of the primary motion (Andante Comodo) sounded a bit disjointed – perhaps nerves and the truth that it was the primary of three performances, however it didn’t matter a lot as issues settled down shortly and proceeded splendidly.  The second motion, a collection of rustic dances, and the third, Rondo-Burleske, had been nervy, sardonic, and at occasions violent, altogether very effectively performed.  We now have some qualms with the magnificent last Adagio marked Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend (very slowly and reserved).  Every part was in place, however in some way not revelatory.  This was good, however “good” shouldn’t be precisely what one expects from this music: Boulez’s finale broke one’s coronary heart.  Perhaps it’s his youthful age and Hrůša will finally go deeper.  The general public rewarded the conductor and the musicians with extended and enthusiastic applause.  The gracious Hrůša went across the orchestra, thanking all of the principal gamers, after which patted the rating, indicating an important factor of the proceedings.  We thought that to be a really correct gesture: though the orchestra’s enjoying was glorious and Hrůša’s interpretation wonderful, it was Mahler’s genius that made the night so memorable.

A few extraneous factors.  The Orchestra Corridor was full, which is nice, contemplating that Hrůša isn’t that well-known in Chicago.  As anticipated, no opinions had been revealed within the main newspapers.  Larry Johnson revealed a pleasant one in his Chicago Classical Assessment.  And, regardless of some quibbles, we’d be comfortable if Jakub Hrůša grew to become Muti’s successor.