Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall – Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler Nine – Joshua Hopkins sings Jake Heggie’s Songs for Murdered Sisters

Jake Heggie
Songs for Murdered Sisters [New York premiere]

Mahler
Symphony No.9

Joshua Hopkins (baritone)

Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin

This program paired two emotionally eloquent works – an arresting song-cycle by Jake Heggie inspired by Joshua Hopkins’s loss of his sister and Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, which reflects upon the composer’s own mortality. 

Heggie’s Songs for Murdered Sisters, created collaboratively with Hopkins, is both a lament and a plea for political and social action. Born out of a real-life tragedy – the murder of Hopkins’s sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, and two other women at the hands of a former romantic partner in 2015 – itdirectly addresses the rise in gender-based violence.  It was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera and the National Art Centre Orchestra, Ottawa, premiered in 2022 with piano.

The poignant work is comprised of eight sparsely worded verses by Margart Atwood. Set to Heggie’s simple melodies and elegant orchestration, the poems are deeply moving and bring the pain of the murders vividly to life. With his warm and expressive lyric baritone, Hopkins immediately commanded attention, delivering a deeply personal and highly impassioned performance. Shading his voice to convey a range of emotions – bewilderment, fear, regret, loss, anger, and resignation – he moved about the stage as he sang, turning his back to the audience in the interludes, as if his grief was too personal to display. His whisper-soft delivery of ‘Empty Chair’, the first (and shortest) of the songs – ‘Who was my sister / Is now an empty chair / Is no longer / Is no longer there / She is now emptiness / She is now air’ – was heartbreaking. By contrast, he all but roared through ‘Rage’,  as he voiced the desire to end the life of the man who killed his sister. The gently voiced final song of acceptance, addressed to Nathalie – ‘When I am singing this song for you / You are not empty air / … You are here with me’ – brought the cycle to a peaceful end.

After intermission came Mahler’s Ninth played with richness and refinement, conveying all the score’s power and emotions. The opening Andante comodowas appropriately yearning, its long span held together at a flowing pace with the transition from the solo bass clarinet to the return of the main theme especially well executed. The two middle movements displayed humor as well as polish, with plenty of spring in the second-movement Ländler, and the cross-rhythms of the ensuing ‘Rondo-Burleske’ marked by bite and sheer excitement. The great final Adagio, alluring from beginning to end, was glowingly tender, optimistic and transcendent.