The Toronto Symphony makes their mark in the Concertgebouw

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra returned to the Concertgebouw stage with chief conductor Gustavo Gimeno for the first time since 2014. After concerts in Spain and Luxembourg, tonight’s programme sought to pair a flavour of home with works rooted in two very different European cultures. Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy’s homage to Canadian pianist Glen Gould sat alongside Bartók’s Hungarian and youthful First Violin Concerto, which lay hidden deep in a drawer for many years before its first performance in 1958, and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony written just ten years before, firmly focusing thoughts on the afterlife. Bringing Mahler to the Concertgebouw, Mahler’s unofficial ‘second home’, is a brave move. Amsterdam music lovers know Mahler’s symphonies intimately, and everyone has an opinion.

The programme

A little piece of home

First though, the small matter of Kelly-Marie Murphy’s eclectic Curiosity, Genius, and the Search for Petula Clark shifting seamlessly between electronic white noise effects, jazzy Bernstein rhythms, plaintive trumpet calls and bold brass band chorales. Gluing it all together, an ever-present off-beat woodblock. Truly, something for everyone.

The concerto

Out of the mist, Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s reading of Bartók’s Violin Concerto immediately evoked scenes of a young boy standing alone in his village square, playing a plaintive Hungarian folk melody. Both a touching homage to the composer’s native homeland, and to his all-consuming love for 19-year-old violinist Stefi Geyer. Wearing a stunning, red dress coat and standing barefoot, Kopatchinskaja was every bit the storyteller. Accompanied sensitively by Gimeno and the TSO, delicate oboe and triangle tings complemented searching horns before the violin’s long, searching melody swooped overhead.

What a tender love this must have been, thwarted now in the Allegro’s very brash, almost aggressive rant. Gimeno’s dynamic and percussive response in direct contrast with Kopatchinskaja’s humble return to the village square and those stories of old. Her encore, teaching the Concertgebouw audience a short folk song and inviting all to sing as part of a round, gave Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s recent turn at Vienna’s New Year’s concert last month, a run for his money!

Time for some Mahler

The main attraction for many audience members though was Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Gimeno’s rather slow and muted opening initially made this a very North American affair. The brass, though had the full measure of the hall and with upper strings lining either side of the stage, six deep, the visual effect was immense. Bright woodwind with bells aloft gave no hint of the rampant horn melodies to come. Gimeno is clearly a conductor who loves big, bold sounds. Smiles broke out every time the fabulously resonant contrabassoon rumbled, or the principal trumpet Steven Woomert soared on high, or the double basses cajoled, their gravitas underpinning all before time stood still as the violins’ return teased time itself.

Spanish conductor Gustavo Gimeno | © Allan Cabral

Turning to his scordatura violin, concertmaster Jonathan Crowe danced the devil’s dance, swirling around cymbals and wind alike. However, balance issues meant we heard rather more brass and rather less violin than is usual. Coupled with the rather sprightly tempo, propelling us towards heaven’s gaze only to be immediately ejected, ironic fun seemed somewhat lacking. The mood changed completely as Gimeno’s expansive Ruhevoll stretched the limit of even the tenderest of loves. But whilst allowing time for the odd glissando, Gimeno’s love however, was not an indulgent fantasy. Realism waited at every turn. Would God open the floodgates and allow sinners to flow forth?

Dark yet forgiving, this was surely the TSO at their finest. The cellos’ opening, and the seconds’ final descending pleas were just sublime.

Christina Landshamer joins the stage

Soprano Christina Landshamer — Christina Landshamer sings Mahler 4 in Amsterdam © Allan Cabral

With Christina Landshamer joining the stage for a very sprightly jaunt through Mahler’s vision of heaven through a child’s eyes, Saint Peter did not have long to gaze. But as ‘angel voices delighted the senses’, Landshamer’s warm embrace invited all to enter heaven’s gates.