Kahchun Wong’s inaugural season as principal conductor of the Hallé began with Mahler’s First Symphony, and will conclude with Beethoven’s Ninth, so it’s fitting that, halfway through, he should take on a work with echoes of both: Mahler’s Second Symphony, the “Resurrection”, conceived in response to its predecessor, and concluding with a monumental choral finale full of hope for redemption.
Bridgewater Hall’s lively acoustic is always an exciting place for a fortississimo, and Wong deployed a supersized Hallé here with a keen balance between restraint and sheer muscle. From an opening statement of such heroic intent that one almost expected to see Siegfried sailing up the Rhine, he sculpted a first movement whose solemnity still found space for light and shade, revelling in solo and sectional highlights while maintaining the inexorable funeral march underpinning them.
