In readiness for their upcoming European tour, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Klaus Mäkelä returned to a packed Concertgebouw for their second programme of the week featuring Mahler 5 and Berio’s Rendering. Memories of the emotionally laden Mahler Festival 2025 loomed large, but as we learnt later in a post-concert chat, tonight was all about finding something new.
The programme
The history
Berio’s Rendering, using fragments from Schubert’s unfinished D major Symphony, is a delightful work and one which is enhanced by live performance. Written especially for the RCO, the work had two premieres: first with Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1989) conducting just the first two movements, and the second under Riccardo Chailly (1990) premiering the entire three-movement work.
Full of attractive and catchy melodies, swooning dances, satisfying tonal cadences peppered with bursts of brilliant colour, Schubert’s incomplete fragments are interspersed and glued together by Luciano Berio’s additions – his musical cement. Each interlude introduced by the celeste, is performed without expression. The challenge therefore is to nurture a musical narrative which moves seamlessly between the old and the new, and in tonight’s case, one which crown’s Schubert king.
The ‘rendering’
A sense of fun abounded in the opening Allegro, full of twists and turns, before the celeste swept us headlong towards the quasi film score mutterings and sliding cello harmonics of the Andante. The snare drum’s hopeful calm was answered by an emphatic horn as rich, sonorous sounds sashayed between those of great delicacy. A clever two-note bassoon motif provoked tense disquiet before morphing into a consonant bass-line, complete with a satisfying falling appoggiatura. Clever Berio!
Opening the Scherzo, a subdued cello theme created an Christmas-like scene, conjuring images of expectant children anticipating St Nicolas soaring through the icy Dutch skies. A winter wonderland, just not as we know it. Mäkelä seemed impressed, at times simply standing and admiring the musicality on stage. His role now, to let the musicians have fun! With a comforting fugal passage to finish, the orchestra sounded liberated.
The symphony
As we returned to our seats for Mahler 5, all eyes turned to principal trumpet Omar Tomasini. Far in the distance, the funeral march approached. The trumpet’s dominance was never in doubt though, for like the greats before, Tomasini left the ends of phrases hanging for just that microsecond longer than the rest. After the joviality of the first half, we were transported back to emotional wrangling of May’s Mahler Festival when the orchestra performed Mahler’s First and Eighth symphonies. But also to the thought that this is a work the orchestra have performed over 130 times: the first with Mahler himself in March 1906, before eight further performances introducing the symphony to audiences all over the Netherlands with their chief conductor William Mengelberg.
Tonight found the RCO at their finest – dark and threatening – with Mäkelä uncovering sadness and melancholy in every turn. Like the trumpet before, the violins teased their melody, holding that dotted rhythm for a moment longer than expected. Muted and rasping horns with bells aloft gave a taste of things to come, yet the trumpet persisted.
The bottom line impressed in the Stürmisch bewegt: the understated cello theme toying with that dotted rhythm. Bass drum rumblings shook the earth before Mahler turned to cello whispers leaving the violin pleading for forgiveness. Details in the huge brass climax made it clear why so many young brass players come to study in the Netherlands.
The Concertgebouw horns
With bells aloft yet again, the horn’s cry of ‘No surrender!’ tore through the hall. But tonight was most definitely Katy Woolley’s moment to shine as the most immense sound burst forth from the tiny British principal horn. Audience members strained their necks to witness her immaculate phrasing.
The bass drum unleashed a fury, hurtling us forward towards Mahler’s definition of love, the famous Adagietto, full of gentle sorrow and pain. And so, like the wind and brass, I donned my pen and basked in the sumptuous harmonies. No one dared move in those final moments, leaving the horn to puncture the air, taking us to a place of hope. Like Schubert before, Mahler turned to counterpoint to reign in emotional uncertainty in the finale. Bells aloft, this time the clarinets rightly relished the limelight. Momentum waned momentarily, perhaps understandable in the hall’s heat, but the ever faithful tuba and trombones regained the focus.
A joyous conclusion was never in doubt. The Concertgebouw positively hummed in approval.
The new Mahler edition
Further listening
Berio’s Rendering is not the easiest piece to learn or listen to at home. I started listening in the car, which did not work as Berio’s musical additions are very quiet. Instead, I tried listening to CD recordings, but still this was not really sufficient. I turned instead to live performances as this is where the work really shines. My favourite is Edward Gardner’s recording with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra.
The 2025 European tour
Catch the RCO at the BBC Proms
Read more from Clare
This concert was reviewed at the Concertgebouw on Tuesday 19th August, 2025
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