Music Reviews : Mester Conducts Mahler in Pasadena

From the portentous optimism of its opening movement to the cataclysmic, death-of-hope climax at its conclusion, Mahler’s Sixth Symphony moves in a jagged line of emotional tension and release to its final plateau.

The problem for a conductor is to maintain the musical line and use the tension to achieve the cumulative plateau--all the while putting into relief every component structural part as it arises.

Jorge Mester solved the problem and gave the expansive but never sprawling work its head and heart, when he led the Pasadena Symphony through the 80-minute piece in Civic Auditorium, Saturday night.

In the process, this bracing challenge became a signal accomplishment for the 56-year-old American conductor and the masterly symphonic ensemble he has led for eight seasons. The polished, emotionally charged, tightly balanced and musically kaleidoscopic performance they gave together may represent a high point in the orchestra’s history.

It was not achieved without effort. Mester produced this performance within an unusual, five-rehearsal preparation period, and employed an enlarged ensemble of 107 instrumentalists.

In the event, he used all his resources wisely--choosing and maintaining viable tempos, eschewing supplementary and unprescribed climaxes, leaving his brilliant orchestral soloists to their own best devices--and kept his cool while inspiring heated playing from his colleagues.

From the apparently blithe beginning to the incontrovertibly devastating final minutes, it all seemed to work, and most touchingly.

The attentive silence in the well-filled hall--Pasadenans are very polite about never coughing, it seems--attested to the concentrative powers of Mester’s audience. And the literate, informative program notes by Lynne McKelvey proved again that enlightened annotations are still possible in this imperfect world.