BBC SO / Oramo, review: Profound emotion

This week’s glut of Mahler symphonies (three in five days scattered across London) came to an end last night with his longest, the Third.

Clocking in at about 100 minutes, it is huge in every way: there were well over 100 players in the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO), alongside mezzo-soprano soloist Karen Cargill and two choirs (Trinity Boys Choir and the BBC Symphony Chorus). The stage could hardly have been fuller. According to fellow composer Sibelius, Mahler believed that “A symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything”: if ever a piece could be said to embody that philosophy, this is it.

The symphony’s first movement is long enough to stand alone. Right from the start, Sakari Oramo (the BBC SO’s chief conductor) engendered a feeling of growth, of upward momentum, and a sense of something wild barely held in check. A long, stunned silence followed its raucous climax. The following two movements open in a lighter, more bucolic mood, only to darken as we approached the fourth movement. To the intermittent accompaniment of wailing oboe glissandos, Karen Cargill’s understated delivery drilled deep to locate a well of profound emotion. The same could be said of the whole performance.