Mahler's 'Symphony of a Thousand'

Leeds Town Hall, Saturday THE forces required for Mahler's Symphony No 8 in E flat, although immense, can be considerably fewer than its popular sobriquet implies.

Saturday's exhilarating performance was conducted by David Hill and given by 111 musicians of the Orchestra of Opera North, eight vocal soloists, 300 massed voices of the Leeds Festival and Philharmonic Choruses plus the 50-strong Bradford Catholic Youth Choir, as well as the Town Hall organ played by Dr Simon Lindley.

This was more than enough to create a joyful sound for Mahler's incandescent setting of the ancient Latin Hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus (Come, Creator Spirit).

The second part of the symphony is a dramatic setting of the final scene from Goethe's Faust. Here, not only the Wagnerian grandeur but also the subtlety of Mahler's orchestral and vocal writing are more evident. The long narrations of the soloists require corresponding vocal styles and voice types. It was almost certainly no accident that six of the singers feature prominently in Opera North's epoch-making Ring Cycles.

Michael Druiett's Pater Profundus, Andrew Foster-Williams' Pater Ecstaticus and Peter Wedd's enraptured Doctor Marianus all projected an heroic Wagnerian quality across lush orchestral textures.

Katherine Broderick, Lee Bisset, Sarah Castle, Madeleine Shaw and Paula Sides (gallantly standing in at short notice for Kate Valentine) likewise sustained a musical line of great beauty. Broderick effectively pinned her top notes to the back wall of the auditorium.

The colour and delicacy of Mahler's orchestration, the spine-tingling attack of the choirs and explosive Heaven-storming climaxes all made an indelible impression.

This was the first Leeds Town Hall performance of the 'Symphony of a Thousand' since 1985. What a thousand pities that BBC Radio 3 microphones were not there to broadcast such a hugely significant concert.

Geoffrey Mogridge