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Review: Resurrecting Mahler in the Tabernacle
Nov 23, 2009 (The Salt Lake Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The biennial Tanner Gift of Music concerts are a treasure in our city, bringing together Utah's biggest musical heavyweights, the Utah Symphony and Mormon Tabernacle Choir -- and if the audience is really lucky, that convergence happens in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
This weekend, the orchestra returns to its former home in the Tabernacle, where it built a powerful Mahler legacy under Maurice Abravanel four decades ago. Keith Lockhart, who also championed Mahler's symphonies during his recent tenure as Utah Symphony music director, is on the podium. Friday's performance of the composer's Symphony No. 2 (the "Resurrection" Symphony) may not have been the pinnacle of Lockhart's Mahler career here, but it was still well worth hearing -- due largely to the relatively brief, but tremendously moving, contribution from the choir.
Lockhart conducts this work without a baton, as is his custom in music that features a chorus. He showed some real sensitivity in tempos and dynamics on Friday, particularly in the contrasting sections of the first movement and in the warm, graceful second-movement LAnndler . Elsewhere, there were a couple of moments when the ensemble threatened to unravel, but Lockhart always managed to keep things in hand.
Mezzo-soprano Nancy Maultsby gave a poignant reading of the song "Urlicht" ("Primeval Light") in the fourth movement; soprano Janice Chandler Eteme was radiant in the finale.
The last of the "Resurrection" Symphony's five movements includes a vivid depiction of Judgment Day. The offstage brass chorale summoning the dead came off especially well, setting up the choir's heart-stopping entrance beautifully. Still, there are few moments in symphonic music that equal this piece's final pages in emotional impact, and the Tabernacle Choir (joined by organist Richard Elliott) pulled out all the stops.
Contact Catherine Reese Newton at creese@sltrib.com or 801-257-8616.
Tanner Gift of Music
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir elevates a good performance to greatness.
With -- The Utah Symphony, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, conductor Keith Lockhart, soprano Janice Chandler Eteme and mezzo Nancy Maultsby.
Where -- Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square.
When -- Reviewed Friday; repeats Saturday at 7:30.
Running time -- 90 minutes; no intermission.
Admission -- Free; all tickets are gone, but a standby line forms at the Temple Square flagpole at 7 p.m.
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