Is Edo de Waart an old softie at heart? You might think so after hearing his thrilling performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Saturday night.
Not that his reading of Mahler’s dynamic 90-minute work wasn’t rigorous and robust. De Waart attacked Mahler’s powerful evocation of “Resurrection” with a sure hand from the opening notes. The well-known cello and bass line, an eruptive rumble that suggests the opening of a grave, registered with force. But unlike many Mahler interpreters, de Waart moved through the early theme with a steady, brisk tempo.
But it made sense. None of the music’s power was lost, particularly since the MSO played with great precision and feeling. But de Waart’s tight rein on the music allowed him to draw heartbreaking beauty from Mahler’s most profound moments. He found great tenderness and delicacy in this most sprawling of symphonic landscapes.
He brought a touch of legato to the gorgeous string theme in the second movement, which heightened the contrast between the crystalline chorale and the more chaotic, alternating passages. And beautifully, he reserved his most gentle touch for the final section of the final movement. As the chorus intones a gentle questioning of mortality (“Rise again, yes, rise again/Will you my dust/After a brief rest!”), soprano Twyla Robinson whispers along, a part of the hushed harmony, but then slowly emerges from the mist, like the sun rising above a cloud.
It was one of the many great moments of the concert, the finale to de Waart’s second season as the MSO Music Director. Sometimes they were mere silences, which de Waart embraced rather than shunned. Kelley O’Connor’s solo (“O Roschen Rot”) was carefully shaped and accompanied. And Lee Erickson’s Milwaukee Symphony Chorus was lush and – when the music demanded – stentorian and full of conviction. In a theatrical touch, the chorus lowered their music binders for the final few stanzas of the verse, ones written by Mahler himself, which make the thundering resurrection of the spirit palpable through music.
