The Finals: Konzerthalle Bamberg, Thursday 13th July
The Joseph-Keilberth-Saal concert hall in the medieval world cultural heritage city of Bamberg, Germany has been the setting this week for the latest edition of one of the most sought after events in the conducting world – The Mahler Competition. Jointly conceived in 2004 by Gustav Mahler’s granddaughter Marina Mahler, Ernest Fleischmann and the Bamberg Symphony (BSO), the competition seeks to help young conductors at the start of the career, by not only giving candidates a platform to display their talents in the week long competition process, or even by awarding €60,000 of prize money, but by creating a safe and nurturing environment where candidates can meet some of the top names in the music business and forge a path ahead in their careers.
And now, in this increasingly digitalized world of live streaming, audiences from all over the world can marvel at their talents from the comfort of their home or office.
This competition is big, with the power to change lives.
Georg Köhler opened the proceedings with the dazzling Czech violinist, Jan Mráček, performing Stravinsky’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D. This was a rather bitty rehearsal and the music struggled to flow. Constantly changing tempi posed a challenge for the German conductor and as a result, the ensemble did suffer. It felt like the music needed more time to breathe. We waited for Köhler to show us his love for a score full of cheekiness, magic and colour.
In complete contrast, Köhler looked much more comfortable as he turned to the first movement of Mahler Symphony No. 7. The rehearsal was more focused and efficient as he homed in on key passages. Without a doubt, the BSO were truly fabulous, and the choice of this symphony allowed all sections of the orchestra to shine.
Perhaps the opening theme could have had more gravitas – it just felt like the cellos needed more time for the instrument to speak – but as the wind produced an endless stream of colours, and the brass revelled in the fabulous writing and soundworld of a composer who himself was completely at home in front of some of the finest orchestras of his time, all was well. Taking time to acknowledge the key players at the end was a lovely touch.
After a short break, Taichi Fukumura took to the podium, looking at ease with this repertoire and having fun with the soloist, finding all the little quirks in the second movement of the concerto. Following Mráček intuitively, Fukumura revelled in all the cross rhythms, of which there are many! Moving swiftly onto the last movement, as was the case in the previous day’s rehearsal with the American baritone Thomas Hampson, Fukumura allowed the soloist to shine, producing a most musically satisfying result. His confident, efficient yet expressive conducting style was beautiful to watch.
It was in this context, that I was initially slightly disappointed by Fukumura’s rehearsal of the Mahler which felt a little too clinical and lacking the emotional depth, the wonder, and the anticipation required of such a complex score. He asked the musicians to be a window into Mahler’s soul, but I felt they needed a clearer vision.
The subsequent performance in many respects saw the orchestra kick into concert mode and perform perhaps as they have so many times before. However, what did distinguish this performance was the slow section (with the trumpet solo) which just settled, and gave all the time to breathe, to create a sense of wonder and amazement; to create a new and unknown world as if this was music for a Hollywood film and the discovery of a new odyssey.
Fukumura found the line, the suspense. This was magical and I stood in my kitchen with tears in my eyes, before the trombone returned us to a place of uncertainty, of unease and a different and more scary kind of the unknown. Fukumura had found his voice and it was very exciting. His eyes were alive, the orchestra and conductor were completely at one, and the result was profound and magical. Mahler would have smiled!
Giuseppe Mengoli, the last to the podium, launched straight into the slow and lyrical third movement of the Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto. Like Fukumura before him, Mengoli seemed completely at ease. Very few words, everything was in the stick. All the complex and at times bewildering cross rhythms found a groove, and the concerto was over before we knew it.
After listening to his two colleagues rehearse Mahler 7, Mengoli wisely allowed the orchestra just to play and to adjust to his musical language before using any words. A reference to their previous rehearsal was a nice touch.
The opening motif, which had slightly eluded the other candidates, was immediately given due attention, now becoming more distant, tighter, sharper, and more transparent. A clever move, as this immediately gave increased rhythmic accuracy to everything that followed. Mengoli looked for rhythmic flexibility and demanded it! The BSO followed his every move. The key moment for me was asking the musicians to find the ‘wonder of what is not in the music, and if you follow that, then the music is magic.’
The performance itself was an intelligent and nuanced reading, full of extremes of colour and texture, almost as if we were hearing the work for the first time, and not the third! This was clearly his interpretation. As we journeyed again to the new world of the trumpet solo, it was not quite the magical journey of Fukumura. Perhaps twice on one night was a little too much for even the BSO.
And so for the results. Who would win? Who would receive the €30,000 prize money and see their career possibly catapulted to new heights? Jakub Hrůša, Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony took to the stage and the rest is history. Praised for his detailed, assured and charismatic command of the repertoire, and his respectful and kind manner with the orchestra, Mengoli is a worthy winner and will be a great ambassador for his art.
I look forward to following his career as he moves on from the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and Dutch National Opera. As Marina Mahler put it so beautifully, this is just the beginning of the process, and not the end.
This competition performance was reviewed from the Medici TV live video stream.
Photos by kind permission © Marian Lenhard
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Further Reading:
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Previous winners of the Mahler Competition include:
Gustavo Dudamel (2004) formerly Chief Conductor of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, currently at the LA Philharmonic, Paris Opera and in 2026, following in Mahler’s very own footsteps, Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic
Lahavi Shani (2013) Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic
Kahchun Wong (2016) newly appointed Chief Conductor of the The Hallé,
Fun fact from the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra’s website:
Almost 10% of Bamberg’s citizen subscribe to one of the five annual concert series. Taking into account the special concerts hosted throughout the year which regularly sell out, the BSO estimate that everybody in the city of Bamberg attends a concert on average once a year. Quite an astounding fact!
Jury members
Finalists’ career details
