MICHAEL DERVAN review the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.
RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, RTÉ NSO/Markson NCH, Dublin
Strauss – Oboe Concerto. Mahler – Symphony No 2 (Resurrection)
MICHAEL DERVAN
IT WAS the end of an era at the National Concert Hall on Friday. And it was an era: the reign of Gerhard Markson at the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, as chief guest conductor from 1998 and principal conductor from 2001, ended in a blaze of glory.
Markson offered works by Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, retracing threads from his years with the orchestra: Strauss was an early concern, and in 2006-2007 he presented the complete Mahler symphonies for the first time as a cycle in Ireland.
Strauss’s Oboe Concerto of 1945 is a work that takes the idea of an endless stream of melody to an extraordinary extreme. The ceaseless-seeming flow of the solo oboe is backed by an orchestra of classical proportions that’s haunted by tokens of the past. It’s music that makes a range of contradictory demands, not least in the way it seems to shift between moments of privacy, for the soloist, and more public statement, by the orchestra.
Friday’s performance by Stefan Schilli, principal oboe of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, floated in an ideal balance with the orchestra, the florid melodic lines delivered with the effortless timing of an experienced raconteur, Markson shaping the orchestra as a perfect interrupter and supporter.
The evening's big work was Mahler's ResurrectionSymphony, a work written between 1888 and 1894, and first heard in 1895, when Brahms, Dvorak, Grieg, Verdi and Bruch were all still alive, and Tchaikovsky was just two years in his grave. Yet it's a piece that seems more fully of the early 20th century than the late 19th, and the forward-looking nature of the writing was heightened by a kind of sculpted precision in Markson's approach.
The strengths of the performance were in its clarity of pacing (especially impressive in the imposing first movement) and its careful marshalling of the heart-turning offstage effects and the giant choral murmur that builds to a blinding blaze.
The members of the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir (singing from memory, and discreetly buttressed by their chorus master Mark Duley on the organ) were in top form, and the two vocal soloists, soprano Cara O’Sullivan and mezzo soprano Jane Irwin, sang with impressive radiance.
The evening, which also marked the final concert for the orchestra’s retiring general manager Brian O’Rourke, was marked by a long standing ovation, which was followed by a presentation to the conductor by the secretary of the RTÉ Authority, Adrian Moynes. A moved Markson shared the credit for his achievements with the players. The NSO, he said, had given him “the best professional years of my life, and I thank them from deep down in my heart”.
