Thursday 9 April 2026

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

Like most of his symphonies, Mahler’s 6th is a monumental work. Lasting over 90 minutes, it takes the listener on a most incredible journey, from sombre military marches to bucolic pastoral scenes, and many unexpected places in between. It requires the forces of over 100 musicians to bring this work to life, with double harps, timpani and multiples of just about everything else bar celeste, tuba, contra bassoon and of course the famous hammer (more on that later). The percussion section alone must have held an encyclopaedic array (some of which, like the herd of cow-bells that had wandered off-stage by the time we had reached the finale) of just about everything that could produce a note when struck, shaken or rattled. What a delightful racket ensued.

It’s 2026 so I thought I would ask AI how many notes there are in the symphony. AI’s answer – “Given the length and instrumentation, the number of notes is likely in the hundreds of thousands, but it has not been officially calculated.” There’s something to do on a rainy day.

Principal Guest Conductor, Sir Donald Runnicles was the perfect choice to lead this vast army of highly talented musicians across Mahler’s Swiss musical landscape. The ranks of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra were embellished with some keen fresh recruits from the Australian National Academy of Music.

With so many talented musicians on stage it is impossible to single any one for mention. The strings did the heavy lifting with their sweeping melodies and frantic tension-building bowing. The winds were playful at times, and at others mysterious. Brass did what they do best, loud declamations to low menacing undertones. When the 8 horns played ‘bells up’, what an almighty sound. And the percussion! Mahler pulled every toy out of the cupboard for this one, and when he ran out he invented a new one – the Hammer. I can only imagine the discussion to decide who got to wield that one.

The 6th Symphony was given the nickname ‘Tragishe” (Tragic) not buy Mahler, who purportedly despised the use of nicknames, but subsequently, possibly after his death. The opening movement is the closest of the four movements to what could be described as tragic, with its relentless martial theme that marches across the landscape being only briefly interrupted by more positive themes. The Scherzo (2nd) movement continues the military march theme, but this time in triple metre. The Andante (3rd) movement is the gentle heart of the work with soft, sublime themes that sweep around you in ever slowly-resolving cadences. And the Finale sees the Hammer Blows of Fate being struck.

The genius of Mahler is evident in so many ways. Firstly his brilliant orchestration that creates musical sounds that are unique and unexpected. One example is the pairing of plucked low harp strings with a tuba, and no other accompaniment until a bass clarinet is added. Another is how his musical narrative can seem to wander, with seemingly irrational rhythm changes, dynamic shifts and contrasts of texture. But in Mahler’s world, these changes are perfectly normal.

And it speaks to the outstanding musicianship of Maestro Runnicles to navigate this narrative and control this vast force of musicians to realise his vision. At the time Mahler was writing his 6th, the psychological term, “stream of consciousness” – fragmented thoughts and subconscious impressions – was being adopted by literary giants such as James Joyce or in Surrealist visual art it was called automatism. While the term was never applied to music, this is what Mahler seems to be doing: fragments of feeling that are somehow connected in his creative mind, and it is beholden to the listener (and of course the musicians) to make those connections for themselves.

Assistant Conductor to Runnicles, Timothy Constable, talks in the interview below about how he helps Runnicles in delivering that narrative. And I was surprised to learn that the SSO owns not 1 but 2 Hammers. One is a commercially produced instrument, the other built by the orchestra’s technical team. This allows the conductor an artistic choice as they produce very different sounds. Mahler originally included 5 hammer blows of fate in the symphony, but reduced it to 3 and ultimately 2. To my way of thinking the 3rd blow would have been the ‘death’ blow to finish the job, so maybe Mahler was leaving open a possibility of redemption. We’ll never know.

To enjoy and appreciate Mahler requires stamina and engagement. Fortunately Donald Runnicles, the SSO and musicians from ANAM did all the hard work for us. We were left to simply soak in that amazing sound-world and allow ourselves to be beguiled by an aural landscape passing before us. Leaving the hall totally sated, I had the secret pleasure of knowing that they are doing it all again next week in a program of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

You can listen to a recent interview with Assistant Conductor (and SSO percussionist) Timothy Constable below: