Mahler
Symphony No. 9
Mahler Academy Orchestra
Philipp von Steinaecker
Reviewed by: Rob Pennock
Reviewed: 11 September, 2026
Venue: Royal Albert Hall, London
The world is awash with good, bad and indifferent performances, of Mahler Symphonies. Where scarcely a week goes by without another complete cycle being launched. In the concert hall, at one time the shorter Fourth was very popular, then the Fifth, with its Elvira Madigan slow movement, crept up and now the Resurrection reigns supreme. However, arguably the greatest is the Ninth, where two massive slow movements straddle a macabre, scherzo like, landler, waltz medley and fugal, Rondo-Burleske.
In terms of HIP, Roger Norrington, who was completely out of his emotional depth, essayed the Ninth, somewhat contentiously, minus vibrato. Then in June 2024 this evening’s forces released a widely praised live performance with instruments in use when it was composed, with gut strings, portamenti, variable vibrato and flexible tempi.
This orchestra, which is about a hundred strong, comprises students and players from existing bands and from the opening bars it was obvious this was going to be a fascinating evening, where the timbre of the strings, harp and narrow-bore horns were very earthy. When the timpani entered, they were very crisp with hard mallets, it was good to hear antiphonal violins and the double basses to the rear.
The movement, with its two groups of themes, a sort of development, recapitulation and extended coda, needs the conductor to effortlessly integrate the changes of tempo and mood, which Steinaecker did. It was good to hear such transparent textures and the timpani so clear and dead sounding in the slow marches. If you were looking for Bernstein like angst and terror, then you might be disappointed, but there are more ways than one of skinning Mahler and Steinaecker offered a compelling alternative.
There are two landler and two waltz themes in what might be called the Scherzo and here the gut strings were distinctive, the rhythms delineated, bouncy and swung, the horns rustic, again all the tempo changes make sense, and the coda was suitably elfin. In the Rondo-Burleske at a fast tempo there was some characterful woodwind playing, although here, for all the rhythmic spring, more violence and attack wouldn’t have gone amiss, prior to the thrilling prestissimo coda.
Steinaecker took a flowing tempo in the molto adagio finale, where the gut strings produced a beautiful sound. Although sometimes the pitch was slightly off. This wasn’t surprising in that the last three movements were played virtually without a break, and gut strings need tuning more often. The instruments created glacial textures, the drums cut through far more than normal and the movement had the necessary valedictory feel, with an exquisite sounding coda, ruined by some idiot shouting bravi.
Also, the BBC really do need to look at the way their announcers act. This one offered breathless, verbose pretention at beginning and end and because a string player had to leave after the conductor came on, gabbled some totally unnecessary nonsense. This really isn’t good enough.
A correction: the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th Symphony is used in Death in Venice, not Elvira Madigan (that’s the Andante from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major). But you’re right about the two idiots who ruined the atmosphere!
While I’m not a fan of Tom Service and his tendency to extreme over-verbosity as a presenter, in this specific instance, there may have been a reason why he spoke while the Mahler Academy Orchestra player had to exit the stage and then return, if I may speculate. This has to do with the radio “dead air” phenomenon, namely that if there is prolonged ‘radio silence’, emergency procedures and material get triggered at the radio station in question. At least that’s the case here in the USA. So Tom Service may have had to speak to avoid ‘dead air’.