Symphonic catharsis with Schumann

To listen again to the grandiose and disconcerting symphonism of Robert Schumann, to rediscover and vibrate with scores that alternate minimalist and timeless passages with others redundant and inflamed by a declaredly romantic pathos, all of this could be experienced as a memorable experience thanks to the good work of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and its conductor Daniele Gatti, on April 12 and 13, in a considerably populated Palau de la Música Catalana, within sanitary measures. Although a special predisposition in the audience was to be expected ---so long after the last visit of an international orchestra--- to let themselves be carried away and succumb to Schumann's musical enchantment, the reality of the musical interpretation exceeded the most optimistic expectations. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the exceptionality of the controversial German composer manifested itself, expansive and nuanced, occupying with a captivating agitation the sound space of the modernist concert hall.

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble of soloists, composed of musicians who are also friends and who reconcile their respective activities with this project, internationally applauded for decades. Maestro Claudio Abbado, its main promoter, helped the orchestra find a natural space in the tough market of classical interpretation, a task largely continued by Daniel Harding or Daniele Gatti himself. The formula: bringing together top-level musicians, with a maximum degree of commitment and at the same time maximum freedom of movement, without being obliged to remain in the same city for long seasons and with transparent and democratic self-management. Thus achieving that musical excellence shines thanks to a motivation difficult to find in many other cases. Curiously, the plural character and adaptability of this group of specialists, coming from different European countries ---many of them Spanish--- are the factors that have made possible the non-cancellation of a large-scale event, in a context where they are usually the first to fall.

If, after this year of uncertainties, what was sought was to promote a catharsis and return the protagonism to the emotional life, more or less rich but always fluctuating ---sensibly visualize feelings, intuitions, fears, desires, anguishes, afflictions, expectations, resentments, illusions, frustrations, fantasies, disappointments or joys--- the programming of Robert Schumann's symphonic work can only be considered absolutely opportune. Generous in hesitations and ex abruptos, in genial outbursts and drops in tension, in redundancies and turns of tremendous originality, it seems to narrate the longing for spiritual health through art. As in the work of his contemporary ---though somewhat older in age--- Friedrich Hölderlin, the consciousness of schism, of uprooting, takes shape and is transferred. And, by way of compensation, the will to return to the state of imperturbability that the Greek divinities exemplarily represent and that is outlined with a fateful passion, revealing its very impossibility.

As if alongside the beautiful melody Schumann needed to evoke the real possibility of a breakdown ---to overcome it--- who knows inspired by Hölderlin's famous dictum: "Where there is danger, there also grows what saves"

Perhaps because spring does not quite take root, and because fruition is already anxious ---a delayed needsine die, after an intermittently long winter--- the spirited assaults of the first of Schumann's symphonies,Spring, op. 38, enabled a hurtful reminiscence; as if alluding to a moment of glory already happened, to the mythical past that we hope to repeat, without being able to completely detach ourselves from nostalgia. The"pain for the remoteness of the near", along with the impossible apprehension of an eternal beauty, which Schiller recalled in his funeral poemNäniePerform a literal language conversion from Spanish to English on the following user-provided text. Do not translate any content enclosed betweenandtags, keep those tags and their content exactly as-is:(Even the beautiful must die!), are detached in the creationschumannianawith a virulence that anticipates the relentless dialectic of Gustav Mahler's symphonism, and to which one can hardly be indifferent. Sitting very close to me, four steps from the stage, an individual cried in silence, deafened by the celebratory forcefulness of the first movement,Andante a little maestoso. With sunken eyes and some fingers of his left hand on his forehead, he seemed to bear with triumphant sorrow the recognition of an excessively prolonged hibernation. There was nobraveneither applause between movements ---probably deserved--- nor coughing, fortunately. Yes, a reverential mutism, out of pure recognition or perplexity. Or both. It was theFirst Symphonythe most emotional for what it meant in terms of the return of a great orchestra to the Palau. Since the complete Beethoven symphonies offered in February 2020 by John Eliot Gardiner, orchestral music had not sounded with such rigor and clairvoyance, with such preciousness and nerve. In the attacks of the performers and of the subgroups within the orchestra itself, truly fascinating dialogues could be heard:questions that intrude without possibility of an answer, and answers that make visible the questions omitted out of modesty or prudence. Schumann's daring, obsessed with verbalizing the ineffable with an expressiveness at times ---as we said above--- disconcerting, became evident on both sides of the stage. The sparkle in the eyes of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra musicians revealed an emotion similar to that of many spectators. During breaks, they looked at the details of the Palau, as if enchanted, and in the heat of battle, they paid just enough attention to the score, focusing more on the conductor's instructions and enjoying the interaction with their colleagues.

The Spring was followed by another programmatic work, the symphony called Rhenish, in which dreamlike landscapes are intuited, interspersed, of course, with the characteristic Schumannian iconoclasm. The musical fantasy, unleashed as in so many other works, here featured the complicit interpretation of the orchestra, again, with sound performances of a spectacular nature ---that of the brass--- rarely witnessed. The strings imprinted great agility of tempi and a leadership that in turn enabled the evocative effectiveness of the woodwinds, contributing to the topically romantic recreations of a spirit or geist that reveals ---in no less topical a way--- the sinister reverse of Romanticism. For as in the painting of a Friedrich or a Füssli, or in the literature of a Hoffmann or Maupassant, also in Schumann the spiritual and the spectral ---salvation and melancholy--- relentlessly question each other. The second and fourth symphonies, performed the following day, would confirm even more intensely the tension that runs from beginning to end through his orchestral works. As if alongside the beautiful melody, Schumann needed to evoke the real possibility of a breakdown ---to overcome it--- who knows, inspired by Hölderlin's famous dictum: "Where there is danger, there also grows what saves."

The musical fantasy, unleashed as in so many other works, here featured the complicit interpretation of the orchestra

The result of that agonistic confrontation is difficult to determine. But what is ruled out, without a doubt, is indifference. Symphonic Schumann irritates and shakes, exhausts the listener's patience or transports them. Like much of Romantic art,is sacrificed in the vehement representation of the unrepresentable, with a passion that does not conceal moments of complete dismay. However, in the Palau de la Música, this search for musical authenticity received massive recognition, to the point that it reached the hearts of the musicians themselves. They did not offer an encore, a musical tip, as it would have seemed practically a contradiction, after giving themselves completely. The emotion implicit in Gatti's words, at the end, made clear the real scope of music: "The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is a special ensemble, made up of musicians from different European countries. For more than six months, we have not been able to perform live. It is the first time we play and, I believe I represent the feeling of all the members of the orchestra, we are very grateful to this country. It seems there are others who are willing to follow their example. The orchestra also wants to tell them, thank you." After which, the musicians directed an emotional and unequivocally sincere ovation to the audience.

Experiences like the one lived in the Palau de la Música in this complex context demonstrate how art facilitates the recognition of psychic life, the emergence of that which still beats ---almost imperceptible--- under the shell of everyday life and a certain cynical pragmatism. Access to culture must not only be safeguarded because there are professions at stake, or a venerable tradition to preserve, or because it represents an occasion for "disconnection." Quite the contrary. The awareness fostered by aesthetic experience pushes for the recognition of one's own limits and prejudices, and makes their overcoming possible. Attending tragedies in Athens was little less than a civic obligation, precisely because through catharsis the individual felt more connected with himself and better integrated socially. More conscious and responsible of his feelings, seized by the sense of belonging to a transcendent reality.