The Mahler Experiment at Sinfonia Smith Square in London, directed by Tom Morris, attempts to blend a symphony with physical drama. As Morris cheerfully declared at the outset: 'None of us quite know what's going to happen!' The performance, conducted by Stephanie Childress, features Mahler's First Symphony, which conjures a shifting landscape of bird calls, blooming flowers, town bands, hunting parties, spring's rebirth, and man's death and funeral procession.
A Trend Towards Spatialised Performances
The trend for getting orchestras and audiences up on their feet in 'spatialised' performances is an interesting one. For good or ill, it turns a work of art into a playground: first and second violins toss a tune to and fro over your head; timpani rolls set your body vibrating; a clarinet entry jumps out from behind you. It's fun, especially if you're someone who wants to count the rests in the horn part, or marvel at the semiquavers in the violins. But is it more than that?
First Outing: R&D Rather Than Finished Product
You can see the possibility here, but this first outing was, as advertised, very much an experiment: R&D rather than the finished product. The Sinfonia's recent music-college graduates coped brilliantly with Morris's choreography, frequently separated from their music, playing on the move. But the physical drama came at a musical cost. Tuning wavered, violins busked and smudged runs and entries juddered across the space. And the challenges forced Childress into safe choices, too often a traffic cop rather than a conductor.
There were some lovely moments, mostly in the third movement where you could chase the eerie 'Frère Jacques' theme around the orchestra in Yoon Jae Lee's efficient reduction, but also in the engulfing power of the finale (though you had to be careful not to get stuck in the brass oom-pahs when there was a lovely string melody going on). But it felt like a warm-up. A second half of Mahler as Mahler intended – the composer's balance and orchestration supplying the professional guided tour after our amateur wanderings – might have turned an experiment into the finished product.
