“Mahler Symphony No. 5”
Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Downtown Knoxville
Thursday and Friday evenings, January 16-17, 7:30 PM
Tickets and Information
It was just one year ago that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra offered a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Of that January 2024 concert, we opined that—
“…for the audience who now understands the Symphony No. 4’s facade of simplicity that obscures the realities of life and death, there are sublime joys to be had with the proper orchestra and a true musical sculptor on the podium. Fortunately, that is the case with the KSO and Demirjian.”
In what can be viewed as a continuation of the Mahler foray into the 20th Century, this January, Maestro Aram Demirjian is following up last year’s Mahler 4 with the Symphony No. 5, a work that received a first performance in 1904 in Cologne. The work opens with a reminder of the Fourth’s trumpet fanfare leading into a funeral march and storm, followed by an expansive Scherzo, a luscious Adagietto, and a Finale that has emotions of humor and a chorale-like swelling of triumph.
The Mahler Symphony No. 5 has a performance time of roughly 1 hour and 12 minutes. A previously scheduled work on the concert, the Stokowski transcription of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, will not be performed.
[Editor’s Note: The Arts Knoxville review of this concert can be found here.]
I attended the KSO performance last night of Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony. It can be described in one word – TRAINWRECK. I knew we were in trouble with the opening trumpet call – two clams in four measures. Despite our youthful and enthusiastic conductor Aram Demirjian’s flailing arms and furtive handwaving, he didn’t seem to have a clue about how this music works. He’s conducted Mahler 1 and 4 previously, those are both Mahler “starter symphonies”. 5 is real music, and real complicated.
High strings were barely able to be heard especially on complex passages when there were “too many notes” for them to play. Then there was the out-of-tune tympani. Didn’t any of these people show up for rehearsal?
I objected strongly to Demirjian spending 20 minutes “explaining” the music to the audience. Mostly wrongly, I might add. He would benefit from reading about Gustav Mahler – staring with the Henry-Louis de La Grange books. And holding Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel up as some kind of model spouse is absurd in the extreme. Demirjian needs to get a grip.
Then let’s talk about the audience. People going in-and-out DURING the symphony for bathroom breaks or more drinks (drinks, IN THE HALL? Obscene!). This after the indignity of going thru metal detectors (not done in Chicago, or New York, or LA, or SFO, or Berlin. . . ). People holding up cell phones to picture-take or record during the performance! And then let’s not forget the Chinese couple with the screaming baby. . . .
The fundamental problem (besides a conductor that doesn’t know his limitations) is the fact that most of the orchestra are part-time amateurs. You can’t have a competent orchestra without a full slate of professionals. Lots of small cities do it (Grand Rapids, Madison, WI, etc).
Knoxville, you don’t deserve Gustav Mahler. Stick with Star Wars and Christmas Sing-a-longs.
Mr. McMillan’s obsessive vitriol exemplifies himself as the “poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Perhaps his efforts would be better put to use elsewhere in other far-flung reaches of the internet to suckle at sour grapes.