Magnificent Jurowski -:

Driving force behind London Philharmonic Orchestra

by Gwen Herat at the Royal Festival Hall, London

He is magnificent; he is iconic; this Vladimir Jurowski, the driving force behind the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He weilds the baton as though it is a magic wand and I can feel its impact on my senses. My annual visit to the Royal Festival Hall is never complete without seeing this enigma. I make it an issue to be in London every Summer just to see him play and listen and each time I do it, my adoration to him leaps in bounds, and I keep falling artistically in love with him over and over again. But this time I am a little disappointed with Jurowski's priorities in playing Mahler and the lesser known Zemlinsky. It is just a preview I am listening to but good enough to be a royal performance. Though I am going to miss his Mahler which is one week away, it gives me greater opportunity to reach Jurowski closer. I can clearly see the movements of his facial muscles, their expressions, his fiery passion each time he brings down the baton. I can feel his charm in every note, scale, triad, coda, etc. no matter whether it is Zemlinsky or Mahler.

On his way to being world's number one conductor, the magnificent Vladimir Jurowski conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Very subtly and cautiously, Jurowski brings these two greats together in a kind of magical vision of excellence. I found this leading up to the grand finale, educating my mind in a surge of classicism in an overview of the Mahler anniversary that is scheduled for throughout Summer. Billed as the most powerful performance from a world-class orchestra-conductor partnership, one must be ready for the euphoria it spreads.

I find Zemlinsky's Six Maelerlinck Songs op 13 somewhat hard to digest as I am hearing them played for the first time. There is a certain classical elegance as mezzo soprano, Petra Lang puts voice into them.

Predominantly early Vienese, I find a comparison to some of Brahm's scores in Zemlinsky's. May be I am wrong because I do not have his recorded music in my collection. With Jurowski playing them, I find the soothing effect on some of them.

Alexander Von Zemlinsly (1871-1942) a relatively unknown among the very popular composes, was born in Vienna and was considered a leading figure in the early 20th century Austrian music. He was a teacher, composer, conductor caught up between trends in history and music. He lived his final years in the USA reduced to a musical exile because at this time, he could not fit into any established school of music. While in Vienna during his formative years, he met Brahms, Schoenberg and Mahler. Apart from the influence that Mahler had on his music, Zemlinsky resembled Schoeberg's overtones. In the opera houses Vienna, Prague and Berlin, he reigned supreme as a conductor. However, he promoted music of the Second Vienese School and was forced to leave Berlin successively for Vienna, Prague and the US. His most successful music was written in the period of 1919-1925. The centre two of his four string quarters and the Lyrische Symphonie on poems of Tagore (1923) expressed his isolation and anguish he was experiencing at the time. He also wrote three early symphonies and eight operas among which Eine florentinische Tragodie (1916) and Der Zwerg (1921) were notably outstanding. He also wrote many songs that are practised at the moment. His later music tended towards neoclassicism and lacked emotional power. At the moment, Jurowski is 'resurrecting' his scores and to me, they are boring.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) a contemporary to Zemlinsky and a rival at that, suffered mentally because of his appearance but was brilliant and robust in his music. His tragic childhood stalked him through life with a brute of a father abusing his long suffering mother. These tragic instances are echoed in his music. He was one of the twelve siblings and five of them died in infancy. Mahler discovered a piano in the attic of his grandmother's house when he was only six. Four years later he debuted his first solo piano recital. Aged fourteen, Mahler enrolled at the prestigious Vienna Conservatory where his young dreams took to flight. There was no looking back for this young genius as he scored from one great number to another until his music came to a standstill tonight under the baton of Jurowski and me from little Sri Lanka watching a dream takes shape.

Jurowski has opted for Mahler's Symphony No.3 in D minor (1896) and revised in 1906. Mahler went better in the same year when he created symphony No.8 in E flat, Symphony of a Thousand. Written in two gigantic sections, this vast score calls for a huge orchestra. The electrifying first half of the Symphony is a setting for a Latin hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus while the second part takes on the final scene from Goethe's Faust. Symphony No. 3 created a precedence for Symphony No. d in E flat.

Gustav Mahler set about creating one of the most extraordinary visions of nature in all art, perched in the Salzburg Alps, in a little hut. The resulting Third Symphony harnessed the expanse that surrounded him. He came face to face with nature's force that he fed into strings and the murmer of the winds found in the pastoral scenes lusciously invading Summer.