Page 176 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

It’s a title you’d expect from Purcell or Handel rather than a living composer, and the piece did
indeed feel like a 21st-century version of Handel’s grand “Ode to Saint Cecilia’s Day”, composed in
1739. Like Handel, MacMillan used verses by Dryden in praise of the saint, who enlarged music’s
domain “with Nature’s mother-wit and arts unknown before.” MacMillan’s piece seemed to act out
that idea, with ancient things such as the plainchant sung by the Children’s Choir set alongside
grimly “modern” march rhythms, which evoked the destruction caused by war (all praise to those
children for hitting MacMillan’s complex harmonies with such spell-binding accuracy). The final
jubilant praise, with all three choirs joined by the orchestra, was overwhelming.

Then came Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, an apt choice as it’s the symphony of Mahler which maps the
most heartening journey from grim despair to riotous jubilation. It was a journey that registered in
our hearts and minds with force (more than a few audience members seemed a bit tearful) and not
just because this was a special occasion. It was because the performance had that humane,
spacious quality we’ve come to associate with this conductor, and this orchestra. The Scherzo of
this symphony is often whipped into panic by conductors, but it doesn’t have to be. The famous
Adagietto is often taken with almost agonised slowness, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a way of
making all this and the symphony’s three other movements flower naturally, without being forced.

That places a special responsibility on the players to make an especially beautiful, rich sound, so
those relaxed tempos seem radiant and generous rather than merely slow. It was a challenge they
rose to magnificently, both individually (all praise to principal trumpeter Gareth Small) and
collectively. Bravo Hallé and Sir Mark; it’s been a wonderful almost quarter-century. IH

Sir Mark Elder gives farewell performances with the Hallé at the Aldeburgh Festival on 23
June brittenpearsarts.org BBC Proms on 21 July bbc.co.uk/proms Edinburgh International
Festival 17 August eif.co.uk