United Kingdom Mahler, Symphony No.2 ‘Resurrection’: Heidi Stober (soprano), Sasha Cooke (mezzo-soprano), San Francisco Symphony Chorus (chorus director: Jenny Wong), San Francisco Symphony / Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor). Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco, 13.6.2025. (HS)
To say that Esa-Pekka Salonen is going out on a high note would be an understatement. Programming Mahler’s Symphony No.2 for the final weekend of his five-year tenure as music director of the San Francisco Symphony was a perfect choice. The music demands the utmost from both conductor and musicians: tracing an emotional arc, it swings from dread-inducing to ecstatic, moment to moment, through its entire 80 minutes..
Notably, it was a rare example of Salonen revisiting a major piece with the orchestra. Mahler’s Symphony No.2 was the first performance of the 2022-23 season, Salonen’s first full season after the lifting of COVID limitations which had limited performances to videos and diminished personnel on the stage. That sensational performance introduced him properly to San Francisco audiences as a music director. (He had conducted the orchestra in the past as a guest.)
What happened now in Davies Symphony Hall was an evening of bittersweet emotions – and an even better performance of the Mahler after his three full seasons at the helm.
There is no escaping the underlying message. The dread embedded in the music may well reflect the feeling that prevailed in March 2024 when Salonen unexpectedly decided to part ways over differences in direction with the orchestra’s management. Still without a new music director for next season, this cultural institution will need its own resurrection. One can only hope that the future can match the splendor that Mahler’s music delivers in the final pages of this monumental symphony.
In the second of three performances, the musicians in the orchestra and chorus made their own statement. Every shift in mood hit just the right tone, from storm to serenity and virtually all the steps in between. The orchestra is known for its Mahler and has recorded the Second Symphony twice – in 1992 with Herbert Blomstedt and in 2004 with Michael Tilson Thomas. What was special about it this time around, aside from the occasion, was the sheer energy Salonen ignited.
The players’ nimble execution in response to Salonen’s gestures mesmerized the audience, which seemed to be revved up to a high pitch going in. They listened with breathless rapture and rewarded the performance with one of the longest ovations I can recall in my five decades in San Francisco. Salonen almost always resists taking a solo bow. When he does, it is in the middle of the orchestra and not on the podium. Friday’s audience wouldn’t leave until he came out three more times. Concertmaster Alexander Barantschik refused to signal the orchestra to stand until Salonen got his solo bows.
The performance which triggered that response began with a fierce gesture with the baton that epitomized the attention to detail that would bring out the emotional core of every phrase. Salonen got the strings to deliver the opening unison tremolo with just enough sustained bowing to amplify the attack. Turning to the low strings, he drew intense playing on the opening eruption. He didn’t even need to beat the time between the onslaughts, which gave the sequence a remarkable sense of improvisation. Every turn in the long opening Allegro maestoso felt spontaneous yet inevitable.
After the first movement, Salonen took a seat facing the orchestra for Mahler’s recommended pause before the next movement (if only for a couple of minutes instead of Mahler’s prescribed five). It served the purpose of refreshing our ears for the very different, graceful Andante moderato which followed. It was so enchanting, the audience offered a ripple of polite applause. For the record, no one shushed.
The Scherzo, marked In ruhig fliessender Bewegung (In quietly flowing motion), came out bouncier than usual, ignited by timpanist Edward Stephan’s cutting opening notes. It felt right, and the quick pace created a lovely contrast with the fourth movement’s balm of the song setting, ‘Urlicht’. Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke phrased the words, in which the soloist expresses a wish to leave an anguished life, her rich low range in a preternaturally steady tone. Her face reflected the seriousness of the text.
That led, without pause, to the expansive Finale. It veered from the explosive chaos of the opening measures (which somehow never lost clarity) to some of Mahler’s most rapturous music. The offstage horns and trumpets and seamless interplay in the sideways conversations between sections of the orchestra perfectly presaged what was to come.
When the soft, soothing entry of the chorus finally arrived midway through the finale, the singers delivered a flexible performance that built to an appropriately fervent climax. Mahler’s music does not, however, move in a straight line. The final movement bobs and weaves. False starts on chorales were interrupted with fragments of fanfares in the brass, all reminders of the music we had heard over the previous hour. Soprano Heidi Stober brought an angelic aspect to her contribution. Whether tentatively picking up the ‘resurrection’ motif from the chorus or intertwining her polished soprano with Cooke’s mezzo to expand into a heavenly duet, she added apt decoration to Cooke’s deep vocal sound.
The final minutes of sustained, hugely expressive music sealed the deal. This was a performance to be treasured, a vivid reminder of what Salonen brought to San Francisco. The audience knew it, and they let him know how much he had meant to them.
The chorus will be back for the final concerts of the 2024-25 season – Verdi’s Requiem (20-22 June) – to be conducted by James Gaffigan, who is among those rumored to be a candidate for the job of music director. But that is a discussion for another time. This concert was all about a sublime farewell.
Harvey Steiman
Featured Image: Esa-Pekka Salonen accepts the adulation after his penultimate performance with the SFS © Kristen Loken