This was Thomas Søndergård’s first night in charge as the RSNO's Principal Guest Conductor. Born in Denmark in 1969 he was initially a timpanist and played in the European Union Youth Orchestra. In his mid-twenties, he told the pre-concert talk, he taught himself how to conduct. As a player he always thought he knew better until he himself was on a podium in front of a symphony orchestra.
Asked whether he would have the score in front of him Thomas Søndergård told us that he would, partly because his memory was not huge, partly as a fall-back but also from time to time he glanced at aspects of the music he had not previously recognised. Already popular from earlier RSNO appearances - in February 2012 with Paul Rissmann he broke all records for the applause from the Usher Hall audience.
Fellow conductor and part-time composer B Tommy Andersson had also taken part in Ursula Heidecker-Allen’s pre-concert interview. His The Garden of Delights was written for a commission in 2009 and drew its inspiration from a Renaissance triptych he had seen some years earlier in Madrid’s Prado Museum. The central adagio is slow and thoughtful but sandwiched between a shorter busier start and finish. He came on stage at its end to enjoy the applause.
Mahler’s Blumine featured a sole trumpeter. The work was written as part of the incidental music for an epic poem when Mahler was twenty-three and running Kassel’s Theatre Royal. The score was lost but not before it was used in Mahler’s First Symphony where it was not a success and was cut. It took Benjamin Britten at the 1967 Aldeburgh Festival to give it the first performance in the form we heard.
Shortly afterwards and still in Kassel, Mahler started to compose and write the verses of his four Songs of a Wayfarer. It may well have come about at the end of a stormy relationship with a soprano at Kassel. Sung in German by Roderick Williams, the London born baritone with a fine record of international opera performances, we heard him sing the story of a wayfarer’s wanderings in mourning at his loss, outbursts of joy and sheer anger. Beautifully sung and, what joy, remarkably easy to follow the words in the programme - even for a non-German speaker like me.
Thomas Søndergård had told us that it had already been decided to end this particular concert with Sibelius’ Symphony No 2, whilst his input on being allocated the baton was the B Tommy Andersson opening work. And if possible, the attendance of its composer who not only loved and conducted Mahler’s music but was half-Finnish. In Finland Sibelius is treated as the hero of heroes and his Second Symphony under Søndergård’s control gave us good reason.
Event: Friday 26 October 2012 at 7.30pm