No pre-Christmas slacking for the London Philharmonic. Having been propelled through Shostakovich's massive Symphony No 7 by their own Kurt Masur on Saturday, they were back just three days later to perform a symphony that makes it seem short by comparison - Mahler's Third.
The conductor was Andrew Litton, visiting from Texas, where he is director of the Dallas Symphony. Of course, you can't expect a guest conductor to generate instantly the kind of rapport with the players that the principal conductor enjoys. Still, the orchestra wasn't sounding quite as polished as it had a few days earlier. Perhaps Masur's understated but communicative conducting suits them better than Litton's straightforward yet expansive style.
Some sections worked well. Despite a rather constrained start, the first movement sprang to life in the central march, with elegantly throwaway string phrases; later on, once the brass had joined in, this march had a cheeky hint of Sousa to it. A genial lilt in the second movement had some people smiling - including the mezzo Birgit Remmert, already in place awaiting her solos. There were some strong individual performances, while the final pages were as radiant as they should be. Even if Litton could have drawn stronger phrasing from the players, there was an easy flow from one section to the next.
Yet this flow wasn't always what we were looking for. At times, this music needs to sound almost as though it is being thwarted in its grand ambition, as though it has to search for where to go next. Without this feeling, the brief, breathless crescendos of the final movement, in particular, don't quite make sense. Here, much more in general could have been made of Mahler's sudden changes in atmosphere.
The best moments were the vocal ones. The Tiffin Boys' Choir and the women of the London Philharmonic Choir brought a zing of ebullience to the fourth movement, putting their words across clearly, and Remmert was a classy soloist. It was just a pity that, considering what we might have expected, the overall result was a touch underwhelming.
