To conduct any orchestra aged 97 is exceptional. To conduct Mahler’s Ninth Symphony aged 97 is nonpareil. Mahler’s Ninth can take 90 minutes to play. It reaches levels of intensity that seem on the edge of the bearable. It probes audaciously into every aspect of the orchestral palette. Yet this is the work that Herbert Blomstedt, visibly frailer than before, conducted in his latest London concert with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Blomstedt may not seem a natural Mahlerian. His performances of the repertoire he normally favours – Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner among them – are invariably wise, enabling and balanced. These are not words that come naturally about Mahler’s Ninth. The Ninth is on the edge. It looks into the abyss. It grapples with mortality. But there is room in the world for many Mahler Ninths. Nor was Blomstedt presiding benignly as the Philharmonia played Mahler. He gripped it. He really did.
