Luisi closes Dallas Symphony Orchestra season with sublime Mahler
Fabio Luisi led an enhanced Dallas Symphony Orchestra on Friday in a brilliant performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, to conclude the orchestra’s current season.
The mammoth “Resurrection” symphony calls for large chorus, two female soloists, ten horns and trumpets, a double complement of woodwinds, three timpanists and augmented percussion, organ as well as “the largest possible contingent of strings,” to quote the composer. In addition to the Dallas Symphony Chorus, guest instrumentalists joined the ranks of the DSO in order to supply the necessary forces.
As evident in his choice of texts, Mahler’s symphony is an extensive meditation on resurrection and the afterlife, profound subjects that require a large ensemble to provide a wide range of moods and a vast volume of sound.
Right from the start of the stormy first movement, the DSO met this challenge head on, with Luisi’s precise yet vigorous direction prompting each of the abrupt outbursts at the beginning of the Allegro maestoso. The opening coalesced into a distinctly martial theme that proceeded with funereal undertones before transforming into the pastoral second theme, replacing the solemnity of the first section with a placid if temporary calm. The orchestra deftly traversed these changes, its individual members showing a focus that easily reinforced the profundity of the symphony’s subject. Throughout the development and into the recapitulation, Luisi’s motions mirrored the resulting moods as he led the development of the movement’s martial and pastoral themes.
In the second movement, Luisi perfectly brought out the contrast between the lilting waltz and more animated second subject, adding just the right amount of rubato to the first while imbuing a sense of urgency to the scherzo.
Luisi took a fairly brisk pace for the ländler-like central movement, deftly guiding the orchestra through the winding principal theme as it was spun out through a succession of rustic and exotic harmonies.
The human voice enters the narrative in the fourth movement with Mahler’s inclusion of his song, “Urlicht” (“Primal Light”). Backed by the delicate accompaniment of the DSO under Luisi, Catriona Morison’s mezzo-soprano consummately captured the sense of pathos and longing suggested by the text’s reflection on the pain of earthly life and the desire for heaven.
The massive finale began with the agitated character of the first movement, initially proceeding as a set of episodes reflecting alternately dramatic and introspective moods. Luisi stood poised at the center of the activity, calling forth interjections from the various groups of instruments. The offstage subset of trumpets and horns added a distant, haunting quality to the more quiet and mysterious passages.
The chorus initiated the second part of the finale with their contemplative rendition of verses from Klopstock’s “Die Aufstehung,” which asserts that the individual will rise from death as sheaves are harvested after being sown. Soloists Morison and soprano Erin Morley each followed in succession with original verses by Mahler himself that affirm the promise of eternal life. Both singers instilled their verses with a quiet blissfulness, but Morley was initially a bit covered by the orchestra despite the relative softness of the passage.
The climax of the finale was set in motion by the men’s voices exhorting that what has perished will rise again; they were joined by the women’s chorus and the orchestra before briefly pausing for the soloists to proclaim the defeat of death. All the while, Luisi steadily marshaled the full resources of the DSO for the culmination of Mahler’s symphony in which the full chorus reasserted the declaration that resurrection awaits, buoyed by a resounding orchestral tutti that echoed throughout the Meyerson Center.
Friday’s awe-inspiring performance of the Second Symphony provided a fitting conclusion for the DSO’s current season, as well as anticipation for the concerts of Mahler’s colossal Eighth Symphony, scheduled for May of 2026
The program will be repeated 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. dallassymphony.org