Both the wonders of the world and the threat to its very existence were the themes of the NSO’s performance last Friday at the NCH (21 February). The concert featured Mahler’s late song cycle Das Lied von der Erde and a new work by Ailís Ní Ríain entitled The Land Grows Weary of its Own, in a programme conducted by Australian conductor Jessica Cottis.

The title of Ní Ríain’s work comes from the lyrics of the U2 song ‘A Sort of Homecoming’, which the composer reinterpreted to reflect a world whose vitality is being sapped by its human inhabitants particularly in regard to animal, marine and bird life. As an artist who is deaf/hard of hearing, Ní Ríain herself is unable to hear birdsong, but for this work her disability became a creative stimulus as she attempted to imagine what birdsong might sound like as climate change takes effect.

The work began with a very striking orchestral texture of string glissandi and overtone-saturated drone sonorities from the brass instruments. When the strings came together on a radiant cluster chord, it set off a distant chorus of birdsong from the woodwinds that was both poignant and seemed to speak directly to the concerns articulated in the composer’s programme note.

As original and striking as these two initial sections were, the rest of the piece seemed to lose its way somewhat with the main problem being the stop/start nature of the form. For instance, after the birdsong section came to a full stop, the music waded through a Penderecki-sounding section of polyphonic string dissonances before again coming to a halt. After a section of fragmentary dialogue between different orchestral combinations, the music launched into a climactic build-up but ultimately sidestepped any cathartic effect in favour of a blustery percussion solo. Several more sections followed before the piece concluded with a coda consisting of a literal approximation of actual birdsong by whistles distributed throughout the orchestra. The overly sectional tendency tended to diminish the work’s more original elements and the absence of assured transitions meant that the piece struggled to maintain its tension over the 18-minute duration.

Late, profound Mahler
Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde was one of two works (the other being Symphony No. 9) that he left completed but unperformed at the time of his death in 1911. A song cycle for two voices and orchestra based on translations of classical Chinese poetry by Hans Bethge, the work has traditionally been viewed as one of Mahler’s most profound statements given the premonitions of his own impending demise that he felt since the diagnosis of a congenital heart defect in 1907. 

The seriously challenging vocal demands of the opening Trinklied were negotiated with a confident swagger by tenor Samuel Sakker whose strength and control were assured thoughout. A contrasting tenderness was the overriding characteristic of Karen Cargill’s interpretation of the melancholic second song ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’ and her sensitivity was matched by an excellent performance of the prominent solo oboe part. 

There may have been a slight roughness to some of the colourful blendings in Mahler’s orchestration, but conductor Jessica Cottis managed the difficult tempo fluctuations extremely well and the sense of narrative never sagged. This was especially true of the last and most substantial song, ‘Der Abschied’, where the orchestra produced the required depth of sound and Cargill delivered a vocal performance that encapsulated both the haunting bleakness and rapturous joy inherent in one of Mahler’s most personal movements. 

This concert was a good example of a thematically coherent programme that incorporated a contemporary work alongside a big piece from the standard repertoire. The NSO may still have a long way to go to get the number of new works premiered in a season on a par with international standards, but with the first half of this concert entirely given over to a substantial commission from an Irish composer, this was an encouraging step in the right direction.

For upcoming NSO concerts, visit www.nch.ie.

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