The New York Philharmonic began its exciting 2009/10 season with a new Music Director, Alan Gilbert. 212 City takes a look at The Phil's new leader.

The arrival of a new Music Director to the New York Philharmonic is obviously an event of the greatest significance in New York city's cultural life. Alan Gilbert is completing his first month in that position. The second program of the Philharmonic's new season was Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony, a massive composition by a composer who was himself a former Music Director of the Philharmonic.

Mr. Gilbert, a youngish 42, has conducted the Philharmonic prior to this season. As with any new music director, now that his tenure has actually begun, it is inevitable that his talent will be more fully examined. There can be few compositions that test a conductor's ability to shape and control vast musical resources and structures as does Mahler's Third. As he walked onstage to conduct last Tuesday's performance, Maestro Gilbert radiated a sunny, calm, self- assurance. As the evening progressed it was apparent why that self-assurance was fully justified.

Consistent with the trends of late romanticism, virtually everything about Mahler's Third Symphony is huge, including the number of movements (six) and its running time (almost an hour and forty-five minutes). As one walked into Avery Fisher Hall it appeared that a veritable musical army had assembled, with a vastly expanded orchestra and no less than two choirs on stage.

Few composers create such massive musical vistas or plumb emotional depths to the degree that Mahler does. Although Mahler is certainly capable of light, charming moments, the intensity and angst of romanticism seem to reach an apotheosis in his symphonies. Indeed, some of his compositions can be a little unsettling to those who prefer to remain in life's sunnier, less challenging shallows.

In composing his Third Symphony, Mahler revealed that he was inspired by the beautiful, rugged mountainous landscape near his summer home in upper Austria. Consistent with his at times dark aesthetic, the first movement of the symphony conjures nature in its forbidding and even violent qualities. After a soaring opening motif played by eight horns, menacing chords of the Philharmonic's lower brass immediately created an ominous atmosphere. The effect of the brass in the opening moments of the work (and throughout the evening) was galvanizing. Its inspiring sonic effect could never be duplicated in a recording and was a reminder of the importance of attending live performances.

Consistent with any great composer, Mahler is able to traverse a variety of emotional moods in a single composition and Maestro Gilbert admirably shaped the changing musical tapestries. The ominous and at times bombastic atmosphere of the first movement gave way to the more relaxed and chamber-like quality of the second, with especially admirable, delicate playing by the violins. Although the composer ultimately withdrew the descriptive titles, he originally entitled the third movement of the symphony "What the Animals of the Forest Tell Me." Musically, it was as if Mahler took the listener through a tour of an enchanted forest where one could hear the cheerful sound of birds in the woodwinds and the roar of a bear in the brass.

The symphony contains text from no less than Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra with lyrics such as "The world is deep….Deep is its pain…Joy deeper still than heartbreak." (Again, Mahler does delve deeply). Mezzo Petra Lang's warm singing of the text gave it a comforting, oracular quality, as if Mother Earth had emerged to reassure the audience. Mahler cleverly used only the upper register of the human voice to highlight the reference to angels in the chorus music of the fifth movement. The singing of the Women of the Westminster Symphonic Choir and The American Boychoir in this section of the work was warm, clear, and memorable.

The scope and breadth of the evening gave an ample opportunity to gage Maestro Gilbert's conducting. His presence on the podium was dynamic but workmanlike. His baton technique seemed to be completely designed to lead the orchestra to fulfill the composer's intentions and he eschewed exaggerated, pyrotechnical gestures. Maestro Gilbert radiated an authority derived from competence and mastery rather than flamboyance.

Indeed, it was in the final movement of the work that Maestro Gilbert' s leadership capacity was given its full expression. It was as if he led his vast instrumental forces to ascend a mountaintop where the dark crags and conflict of the beginning of the symphony were left behind. The Philharmonic's rendition of the last movement was truly transcendent, and the listener basked in vast emotional vistas of light, sunshine and hope. The elegiac playing of the strings in this section of the symphony was particularly moving and impressive.

At the conclusion of the symphony, Gilbert quite rightly walked to the back of his orchestra and singled out members of the brass section for special recognition. Although the playing of the orchestra was virtuostic throughout, it was clearly the brass, and especially the trombones and tuba which accentuated the symphony's monumental quality. The audience left the concert in a happy, triumphant mood, which clearly augurs well for the Philharmonic's new era under Maestro Gilbert's leadership.

Postscript: For those who could use some comedy (and these days, who couldn't) the Philharmonic is sponsoring a solo appearance by Bill Cosby at Avery Fisher Hall on Saturday, October 17. For more information log onto The New York Philharmonic Website. Information on the Philharmonic radio broadcasts, which Alec Baldwin is now hosting, can be found at The Philharmonic's broadcast page.

Review of NY Philharmonic concert of September 22, 2009

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