Still in his early 30s, Lahav Shani has been chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic since 2018, and two years ago became music director of the Israel Philharmonic too. He’s one of the most upwardly mobile conductors around today. In the UK, however, he remains little known, even though he made his debut with the LSO in 2019 and, as this concert demonstrated, he has begun to forge a productive relationship with the Philharmonia, returning this time to conduct Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.
There’s a brisk directness to Shani’s baton-less approach, and the Philharmonia seem to respond to it superbly. His tempo for the opening Allegro was on the fast side, which may have generated superficial excitement, but rather deprived the movement (which is marked “intense but pithy”) of some of the ominous weight that defines the symphony’s tragic journey. It also jarred with Shani’s decision to revert to Mahler’s original order for the central pair of movements, placing the Scherzo before the Andante. The sense of that manic section reinforcing the tragic insistence of the opening movement was diminished as a result, though it was followed by a wonderfully buoyant, rhapsodically shaped account of the Andante.
