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• 1. At 9:13pm on 20 Jul 2009, themusicalgrimes wrote:

  Very intresting programme! I am a young flautist from Ireland and I was very inspired by this performance. I love watching and listening to the Proms and will go to one soon and hopefully join the BBC orchestra some time. Can't wait till the Rite of Spring! My favourite piece!!!!

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• 2. At 00:28am on 21 Jul 2009, penman41 wrote:

  As the cymbals crashed at the end of the third movement, a man next to me in the Arena whispered loudly, 'Wow'. This was that sort of concert. I feared that Haitink might have been taking the first movement too slowly, too ponderously, but, with fierce precision, he allowed the forces to layer and build upon themselves, for the Landler then to rollick along, the burlesque to face down the repeated pitfalls into gloom, until, finally, the ebbing tide of the finale was caught with vast control, and the great hall had its rarest of moments, when it, and its 6,000 passengers heaved and breathed as one with the music, like krill caught in the belly of a whale, consumed in the dying of exquisite sound. Another man beside me flicked away tears as the music faded into the abyss. Mesmeric.

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• 3. At 09:47am on 21 Jul 2009, ShadiHijazi wrote:

  This is the first time I listen to a Mahler symphony live, and the bar is raised high in the sky.
  It was a perfect musical night, the long queue and the extremely crowded Arena indicated what a special night we are having ahead. And special it was.
  The glory and climaxes in the beginning gradually gave space to more emotional expressions in the first move. Your heart is taken little by little by the emotions abundantly present even in the second and third scherzi. Love, joy and life kept showing themselves among the sudden quiet and slower parts, and the catchy parts surrounded heart-gripping ones.
  Then comes the finale, the colossal adagio, leaving your heart bare and shieldless, and ending the symphony in complete surrender, and in a very unfamiliar end, to me at least....

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• 4. At 1:50pm on 21 Jul 2009, maestro267 wrote:

  I'm not as familiar with No. 9 as I am with some of Mahler's other symphonies, but this was still a magnificent performance. The end of the third and the beginning of the fourth movements, I think, is the most important part of the symphony, with sheer anger in the third movement turning to resigned acceptance of one's fate in the fourth. This was very well done by the LSO and Haitink.
  
  All in all, a great concert.

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• 5. At 11:00am on 22 Jul 2009, shostyfan wrote:

  Having been greatly impressed by Haitink's Mahler 6 and Shostakovich 4 with the CSO last year, I had high hopes for this performance, and neither Haitink nor the LSO disappointed. Haitink brought a lifetime's experience to the performance - what better for a symphony that is virtually a lifetime's experience condensed into an hour and a half! Tempos were just right, and the way the LSO played, one would have thought that this was one of the world's great Mahler orchestras, which I understand is not generally seen to be the case. The sensitivity of the string playing at the very end deserves special praise - this is an example of where the quietest music speaks loudest. I very much look forward to further Proms appearances by Haitink.

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• 6. At 1:38pm on 22 Jul 2009, alan-sheffield wrote:

  I hadn't been to the Proms for about 30 years, so the chance to hear and see one of the Mahler greats in action was so good. I thought it was superb throughout. The balance sitting in the boxes on the left hand side was a little strange, you couldn't always hear the strings so well. That aside, it was worth every penny. The silence at the end was just what was needed after the intensity of the final pages. Mahler always gives a great opportunity for the horns and in both loud and quiet passages they were wonderful. The bonus for me was that I had not realised that I had booked tickets in a box - just the icing on the cake! And all this on top of England winning the test!

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• 7. At 03:08am on 23 Jul 2009, uconnrong wrote:

  Wow, is all that I can say. It took my breath away. The whole performance conveyed an incredible sadness of saying good bye. It was unhurried as if there was a certain longing but without a sense of unfulfillment, especially the opening bars and the finale. In the recent years, I have seen and heard Maestro Haitink with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras in quite a few performances of such masterful delivery. Yet, this was the most poignant one. There was a rare synergy between him and the LSO musicians. All elements came into one. I have heard recordings of Mahler No. 9 with the Boston Symphony (Ozawa), San Francisco Symphony (Michael Tilson Thomas), Berlin Philharmonic (Bernstein), and watched Sir Simon conducting Berlin, I have never felt so much personal emotions expressed by the musicians. I hope that LSO and the BBC have realized what a special performance it was and will release the recording!

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• 8. At 4:43pm on 28 Jul 2009, davehs23 wrote:

  Foimal clarity (of which Haitink spoke in interview as being important here) with most flexibly expressive and secure playing was hallmark of the 1969 Mahler 9 of his and Concertgebouw - still hallmark in ever expanding discography for this piece. Expectations naturally ran high for Haitinks visit this year with the LSO, for the Mahler Ninth. For a considerably slower Andante comodo than previous - not exaggeratedly so - the LSOs playing sounded on purpose drained of inner vitality and of color, with contrasts between episodes somewhat minimized between, starting out, dragging beat to Lebewohl and brooding of the D minor subject (Leidenschaftlich).
  
  Sneaking in was a somewhat borrowed tendency to texturally verticalize this music, as such one sometimes associates with Horenstein not so much true with Haitink before. As different a Mahler conductor as Abbado reminded from Berlin ten years ago of the1953 Horenstein/Vienna SO Ninth. Here it was more late-career Horenstein. Deryk Barker could not have been more pleased. Trumpet fanfares right before well-limned chinoserie and recapitulation of Lebewohl seemed devoid of good underlying rock of pulsation guiding them. Moments of open space, so sublime here in both what followed and other episodes, seemed, partly too with Royql Alberts acoustics, a little constricted. Haitinks view of this music remains clear his good ear for where it is headed, and now more interestingly so at times. The huge climax twenty minutes in, after buildup of understated defiance - thinking of what people heard at Royal Festival in 1967 with Klemperer quickly catapulted its way in - then to be followed several minutes later with steep ascent for anguished shift to minor mode submediant and brief reprise of Leidenschaftlich.
  
  .The depressed mood of this Ninth continued into the second movement with soggy attacks on some accents and heavier, though also improved more roughly bucolic approach than innocently so in Amsterdam. Suggestion of defiance has crept in here, but as suggested more than stated as for instance with Klemperer. Contrast between sections was minimized, but Haitink made halfway through the third (lebewohl) laendler sag a bit much, making return of first laendler in duet of bassoons answered by acridly spaced woodwinds enter too lively by comparison. Otherwise mastery of structure was intact and spirit of this music well observed. Rondo-Buleske, at sluggish tempo and intermittently compromised ensemble, was weakest of four movements in this. Moments of defltly handled naivete, so in place before (1969), seemed wonky here. Heavy parody of the academic in the rondo-fugue hallmark of controversially paced Klemperer plus aggressive defiance with which that one ends was minimized here.
  
  Whereas critics have commented before on the 1969 Haitink having given individual characterization of each movement of this, the goal in mind here from getgo was the Adagio and its transfigured light, which after a minute to get into it, built up to being fully open and sublime. It was then that there could have been no doubt why any effort to have attended this or special effort to listen in. Pace was just a little slower here than in 1969, with contrast into the Adagissimo final page slightly minimized; Haitink beautifully captured this forty years ago The Adagio came as somewhat of a release of even unwanted tension, that is to an extent of being alive - having any desire to continue with, enjoy life curious because a great love for life infuses so much of what Mahler wrote here. I take less kindly to the Bernstein epicurean approach - but lately the glib, streamlined manner of Gergievs LSO Live Mahler cycle has been off-putting. The LSOs show of mutual affection for Haitink at close of this, with affirmation from throughout Royal Albert Hall was moving. More affecting still would have been less rush to applaud after the last sounds of the Adagio as heard here had faded away.
  
  David H Spence

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