On consecutive Saturday evenings, the two greatest German orchestras recently performed at Carnegie Hall. It presented a rare opportunity to contrast the styles of these two cultural bastions, all the more so as they both presented programs of all-German music.
On February 25th, the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle began with two lieder by Hugo Wolf for chorus and orchestra and a third that added a soprano, Camilla Tilling. I found all three pieces fascinating, and would have even if for no other reason than that they allowed me to hear the talented Westminster Choir perform a type of music with which I had never before associated them.
In the second half, the orchestra gave its own interpretation of Mahler's Second, the Resurrection, a symphony which has always sounded a deep personal resonance within me. The very first time I heard any of Mahler's music was when, at the New York Philharmonic in the mid 1980's, Leonard Bernstein filled in on short notice for an ailing conductor, tossed the original program, and instead launched the orchestra into the Second's opening movement. Overall, I thought the Berlin Philharmonic's performance with Rattle conducting, if it did not quite live up to Bernstein's interpretation, was much more nuanced than many I've heard over the years and yet still powerfully expressive.
Yesterday evening, I heard the Vienna Philharmonic with Loren Maazel conducting, beginning with Mozart's next to last symphony, the #40 in G minor, followed by a nearly 80 minute suite, assembled by Maazel, of orchestral music from Wagner's Ring. Although nothing can match the power of the fully staged, four-evening Ring Cycle, this particular condensation was as effective as any. And hearing the great Vienna Philharmonic play Siegfried's Funeral March and the finale to Gotterdammerung had an overwhelming effect on me.
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