Colston Hall, Bristol
As the Philharmonia's Mahler cycle with Lorin Maazel continues, it's hard to resist the observation that this is as much about Maazel as it is Mahler: the Colston Hall programme was even parcelled with a brochure about his own festival back in Virginia. This concert paired the Fourth Symphony with Mozart's Violin Concerto No 5, on paper a heavenly combination in keeping with the symphony's pervasive theme of Das Himmlische Leben. But there was something curiously mundane in the delivery of both works.
Akiko Suwanai was the soloist in the concerto, always poised and articulating her phrasing with sensitivity, yet at no point did the understanding between violinist and conductor transcend the mere mechanics of the music to reach any higher plane. There was something equally routine about the first movement of the Mahler. Where the characteristic sound of sleighbells should cast a spell over the opening, recapturing that magic at every return, there was an already weary feel. Even the spectral scherzo lacked its sinister element, and only the definition the Philharmonia's wind-principals gave to the lines of the Adagio had the stirrings of something more profound.
At 81, Maazel has struck a balance between seeming to do everything and doing nothing, content to rest on his reputation and, quite often, on the rail of the podium. And where some conductors wear their hearts on their sleeve, with Maazel, it's on his cuffs; their starched corners define the beat as much as the tip of the baton. It does little for the overall architectural span. Soprano Sarah Fox helped redeem this performance, bringing a lovely vocal quality to the finale. She mixed the purity of innocence with a knowing warmth, thus achieving the reconciliation of disparate elements on which Mahler's great scheme ultimately depends.
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