“Symphony of Survival”: The ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, which is threatened by Rotstift, has reaped extensive applause for Gustav Mahler’s second – also from the Minister of Culture
Christoph Irrgeher. 23. May 2025, 16:30
The ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) Vienna (here with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in April of the year) at the Konzerthaus in Vienna.
APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH
Where a minister, there is hope – at least that’s how it is on the opera stage: If the chivalrous Don Fernando enters the scene in Beethoven’s Fidelio, the title hero is as good as free from the dungeon. On Thursday, a real Minister of Culture sat in the Vienna Konzerthaus, and hopes also rest on this Andreas Babler: The ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, whose performance he attended, was recently able to secure him monetarily until 2029. * Once again, the sword of Damocles had dangling over the ensemble: In view of a virulent pressure to make austerity, there was a threat of discontinuation of funding by the ORF, which could be averted.
The Babler visit to the Konzerthaus now seemed to have an energy drink on the high-class orchestra: Rarely has the RSO been experienced with more heart and soul, fervor and precision in Gustav Mahler’s cosmos of work. There was a certain irony that the Resurrection Symphony, of all things, came to the train.
Imposing collective achievement
The wind solos are lightning clean, but the collective performance is even more impressive: Under chief conductor Marin Alsop, the initial movement was put under power from the first bar and reached a peak of tension, without revealing any of the crystal clear sound of this performance. Like a chillout zone, the second, unexpectedly silent sentence, which served loud punches all the more effectively. In general, the sound contrasts of this work: Hardly ever have you heard them realized so strikingly in the context of flowing tempos.
When Nikola Hillebrand and Sasha Cooke then raised their concise voices and the Vienna Singing Academy began to sing of the last things (rehearsed with nuanced by Heinz Ferlesch), the musical sky opened: With a spew steps one headed towards the good news of the Resurrection and culminated in a rush of happiness that had become a sound. At the end extensive adouse, also from Babler from the box. Will he also hold his hands protectively over the orchestra? One can hope.