Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@cincysymphony continued its 2025-26 season with a program featuring one of the crown jewels of 20th-century symphonic music, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.
Under the direction of guest conductor Tabitha Berglund, newly-appointed principal guest conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie, the orchestra opened with perhaps one of the quirkiest new orchestral scores by contemporary Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir (@annathorvalds), ARCHORA. Premiered during the 2022 BBC Proms in London, it was a true sonic landscape that washed over the Music Hall audience, musically hinting at 1960s serial music such as Krzystof Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima. This was most evident in the long chords for low brass and near-constant use of three different bass drums in the percussion.
Gustav Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder, written in the summers of 1901 and 1902, have long been known as mainstays of the art song repertoire, but which have not been performed in Cincinnati since 1991. Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling, making a welcome return to Cincinnati, performed these songs with keen intelligence, effervescent grace and a protean, winning sound, particularly the third and fifth songs, evoking the despair and hope one may find in life. Maestra Berglund proved to be a perfect leader, light and freely flowing without being overly strong.
The same can be said for her interpretation of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Composed roughly two years before the Rückert-Lieder, it is easily the most intimate and folkloric of Mahler’s nine symphonies. Berglund brought these qualities in spades, allowing all the musicians to come through without pushing the sound excessively forward or being rushed in any way. The latter was most apparent in the first and third movements, as the more jocular and passionate moments (particularly for the percussion and strings, as Berglund is herself a cello player) were the most relaxed I have heard thus far. Soprano Tilling in the fourth movement, singing a setting of the folk song Das irdische Leben, brought a bright, warmly polished sound and a wonderful sense of childlike innocence to her performance. Looking forward to March and April. Bravi!