Season Finale

I made is back in time for the Philharmonic last night, with an early 20th Century German program led by music director Lorin Maazel, in their final subscription concert of the season. The first half of the program featured American soprano Deborah Voigt, who is possibly the leading Strauss and Wagner soprano of our time; she will sing the title role in next season’s Metropolitan Opera production of Tristan und Isolde, and will sing Brunnhilde in the Met’s new Ring production in the 2008-09 season, a role I saw her debut two summers ago at Tanglewood, where she sang Act III from Gotterdammerung. (She also sang the role of Sieglinde in Act I of Die Walkure.)

Last night, her clear, high soprano was on full display in four songs by Richard Strauss, all orchestrated by the composer. Only one of the songs – the haunting "Morgen" ("Morning") – had been performed before by the Philharmonic. Of the other songs, "Lied der Frauen" ("Song of the Women") was particularly transfixing, with it’s drawn out, Wagnerian ending. But, Voigt saved her best for last, letting her massive Earth-Mother voice rip in the ecstatic "Celebration of Spring." As an encore, she Sang a fifth Strauss song, "Erzeihung" ("Education"), which was slightly less dynamic but no less wondrous.

Gustav Mahler was only four years older than Strauss, and the two great composers were close. (You can read an interesting anecdote about them on the day of the premiere of Strauss’ Salome in this excerpt from Alex Ross’ upcoming book The Rest Is Noise.) Strauss, who outlived Mahler by nearly 40 years, would later return the favor Mahler had shown him by conducting several of his symphonies, but to the best of my knowledge, he never conducted the Seventh, which concluded last night’s program. This huge work, lasting nearly an hour-and-a-half, begins darkly and slowly unfolds over five movements, tracing the imaginary journey of a wanderer through a dark landscape. I was put off by the uncertain brass section, particularly the horns and trombones, which were wobbly, if not downright off in the early movements. They seemed to finally pull it together in the fanfare-laced finale, but an orchestra of this caliber – and this payscale – should be able to nail those notes from the first downbeat. I can’t even begine to imagine how Mahler – a former NYP music director himself – would have reacted had he been on the podium.

The Philharmonic will be playing their populist Summertime Classics series for the next couple of weeks, and then they’re off to the Bravo Vail Music Festival before returning in July for the annual free parks concerts in July. Let’s hope the mountain air blows some wind into those tattered sails…