Distilled Series: Mahler 4 at Howard Assembly Room

Last Thursday saw the latest in the Distilled series of concerts. Sadly we didn’t get a complimentary dram to see us through the evening, but something just as intoxicating in Mahler’s 4th Symphony. The name of the event signifies that the work has been distilled into a chamber piece using a much smaller group of players than would have been the case had it been performed in its original concert hall version. There still seemed to be more players than audience members, even though the room was just about sold out.

Before the main event we were treated to a world premiere of ‘a true blue sky’, the lower case is the way in which it is listed in the downloadable programme, composed by Carol J Jones. Actually it had been performed the day before at the lunchtime concert at Dewsbury Town Hall.

Carol J Jones

The work was commissioned by the Orchestra of Opera North specifically for this pairing with Mahler, who had compared his symphony to the ‘uniform blue of the sky’ which inspired it. Ms Jones approached her task by referring to a study carried out by UK National Physical Laboratory to find the bluest sky in the world. They used a specially developed spectrometer to analyse the colour levels and discovered that the accolade should be awarded to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In silver and bronze positions, medal colours – not sky, were Bays of Lakes, New Zealand and Ayres Rock in the Outback of Australia.

a true blue sky deconstructs the wavelengths of each blue into hertz which are then used to supply the notes. As there is no static period in the measurement, the work starts with a trumpet and then flits from one instrument to another, creating a sound which is very entertaining as well as interesting. The duration of the piece was only around four minutes so didn’t become too involved or technical. Certainly a novel way to begin the evening.

The Mahler Symphony No.4 in G major was arranged for chamber orchestra by Iain Farrington, and, although comprising only sixteen players, gave the illusion of a much larger ensemble. There are four movements with the last one being sung by a soprano, in this case Claire Lees. The Opera North Chamber Ensemble was conducted by Oliver Rundell.

Soprano Claire Lees and Conductor Oliver Rundell

The first three movements are all fairly slow, with just the odd burst of action which made it sound to my untrained ears like the score to a film. I didn’t recognise any of the melodies but they were all very pleasant and I could see why the composer had made a comparison to the sky. Even the clearest sky has the odd cloud pass by now and then.

The fourth movement was also delivered at a considered tempo, being a religious work full of references to various saints and biblical characters. As I am a devout atheist I didn’t get many of them, but the song was sung in German, so I hope I can be forgiven.

The running time for the two works combined was almost spot on an hour, which was perfect as a taster of the composer’s work. I am sure that the full orchestral version would be paired with others of the same duration to make it worth while getting the whole shooting match together.

The Opera North Chamber Ensemble – or as many of them as I could fit in!

I love the Howard Assembly Room and the wide variety of productions it stages but I do have one gripe, and that is the programmes. Before the pandemic we were given a physical copy where one had been produced, but since then they have been downloadable. That is fine, except you can’t refer to it during the performance, as to do so would be to distract your fellow audience members with the glow from your smartphone. Whilst it is not always possible to read printed text in subdued lighting, it would have been nice to have been able to attempt, at least, to follow the libretto in its English translation.

Should you wish to read more about the concert, the programme is downloadable at https://d2c6kjafra7luc.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/har_programme_distilled-Mahler-4_14-Nov.pdf

The next Distilled performance is Ravel Piano Trio on Sunday 10th December. https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/distilled-ravel-piano-trio/

To see what other events are coming to Howard Assembly Room please go to https://www.operanorth.co.uk/event-tag/har/

Photographs by Stan Graham