At their best, Roger Norrington's Experience days put the enlightenment into the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. This time it was the Mahler Experience. Yes, that's correct. The OAE, a period-instrument ensemble, playing Mahler, the late-Romantic bastion of "modern" symphony orchestras.
"How can we add anything with these instruments to this music?" Norrington asked. In fact, it was less a case of addition than of taking away. Norrington conducts as if with an ear syringe, and here he sloughed off the vibrato-addled sumptuousness that has become the modern way of playing Mahler.
The day climaxed with a concert that began with Blumine, the slow movement Mahler originally wrote for his First Symphony but jettisoned after three performances. It's a simple, tuneful, sentimental piece, light years away from the twisted funeral march and Klezmer music of its replacement.
The themes from his Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen that he transplanted into the symphony were more inextricable. Not everything in this performance of the songs was pared down - certainly not Christopher Maltman's eloquent baritone. But the word Leide (sorrow) at the end of the first song sounded desperately bleak alongside the vibratoless violins and hard-edged oboe. Norrington, pleased with the effect, gave the orchestra a swift thumbs-up.
The OAE wind players made the opening of the First Symphony sound earthy rather than ethereal. At times the violins seemed underpowered, unable to produce a massive crescendo without vibrato. But the second movement lost none of its rumbustiousness, and the Klezmer episodes of the third sounded even more disquietingly alien than usual.
Mahler, as Norrington explained, was no opponent of change, and one suspects he would be delighted by modern performances of his symphonies today. But what emerged was that the essence of Mahler's work is not in the overblown performing tradition attached to it, but is written in his scores. Norrington hinted that this may be the last Experience; if that's true it's a shame, as there's still plenty of music waiting for his exploration.
