United States Mahler, Symphony No.3 in D minor: Wiebke Lehmkuhl (contralto), Uniting Voices of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Klaus Mäkelä (conductor). Symphony Center, Chicago, 25.4.2025. (JLZ)
Conductor Klaus Mäkelä led a vivid performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.3 in an almost sold-out house at Symphony Center. He has already ingratiated himself with Chicago audiences, and this concert enhanced his reputation in a solid treatment of the score.
The first movement’s challenge is to maintain intensity in the roughly half an hour it takes to perform, and Mäkelä added to the excitement by driving it to an electrifying conclusion. He brought a sense of texture and pacing to his interpretation with a flexible beat that helped to define the sections. As a result, the performance had the breadth to allow the audience to appreciate the lush, augmented horn section and the moving cantillation of the solo trombone. Through all of this, the strings offered a core sound that anchored the piece with the full sonorities that made the performance stand out. It was no surprise to hear spontaneous applause at the exciting conclusion.
After few moments of silence, Mäkelä continued with the second movement and, from the start, focused on its delicate character (Tempo di Menuetto Sehr mässig). The notably softer volume drew the audience into the details that set it apart from the first, the string section working together as if it were chamber music. This contrasting approach complemented the first movement as Mäkelä brought out the character of the work. He treated the following Scherzando with similar care, especially the passages that offer an orchestral translation of Mahler’s song, ‘Ablösung im Sommer’. This set the tone for the piece, as it moved from the song quotation to other ideas that suggested a wide range of emotions. Among them is the famous posthorn solo that sounded effortless despite the technical demands Mahler made. As it developed, the reprise of the horn chords from the first movement led to an orchestral tutti that evoked the appearance of Pan in the program Mahler once used for this symphony. Mäkelä gave full measure to the concluding notes and brought it all to a satisfying conclusion.
In the fourth movement, Mahler’s setting of ‘O Mensch! Gib Acht!’ from Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra introduced the Chicago audience to contralto Wiebke Lehmkuhl, who sang with the required determination. The declamatory statements at the beginning gave way to lyrical passages that showed Lehmkuhl’s ability to sustain a line with ease. She has sung Erda in Wagner’s Ring cycle, and her approach reflected some elements of that role in the pithy text Mahler selected for this symphony. Even in the darkness of midnight, the message of transcendent joy to relieve the pain of earthly existence echoed in this performance. It led into the choral fifth movement that followed, with the women of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the children of Uniting Voices of Chicago singing ‘Es sungen drei Engel einen süssen Gesang’. The higher voices shifted the timbre from the solo contralto to the treble choir to present the text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn which celebrates Saint Peter’s forgiveness for betraying Christ and his entrance to the joys of heaven.
At the end of the song, the choirs remained standing, and that gesture itself called attention to the conclusion, which Mahler once intended to call ‘What love tells me’, in the sense of love being Caritas rather than Eros. It began with chamber music-like sonorities that present thematic ideas which develop in the variations that follow. As he did elsewhere here, Mäkelä gave the phrases breadth to bring out the structure clearly. The woodwinds, especially the flute, worked well with the strings in the first part and, as the other sections of the orchestra entered in the later passages, the cohesiveness grew.
Mäkelä brought out all the details in the demanding Third Symphony which are essential to success. It was a convincing performance that resonated throughout Symphony Center in a masterful reading of this significant work from the earlier part of the composer’s career.
James Zychowicz