Mahler’s Third Caps Symphony Season

When Gustav Mahler sat down to compose, he didn’t just write symphonies, he created entire worlds.

“Mahler wanted each of his symphonies to represent his vision of the world at the time he wrote it,” says conductor Fabio Mechetti, “and the music itself should represent that world.”

The world Mahler created when he wrote his Symphony No. 3 includes an orchestra with double the usual number of brass, woodwind and percussion instruments, a boys’ choir, a women’s choir and an alto soloist. The world of Mahler’s Third is not made up merely of music; it uses poetry drawn from folklore and from the novel “Also sprach Zarathustra” by German poet-philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

The Spokane Symphony closes its 1996-97 season Friday with a performance of the Mahler Third with mezzo soprano Linda Caple, the boys of the Spokane Area Children’s Chorus and the women of the Symphony Chorale. The choirs were prepared for this performance by Tamara Schupmann. Mechetti, the orchestra’s music director, will conduct Friday’s performance.

The Spokane Symphony has performed several of the Mahler symphonies, some, like the First and Ninth, more than once. But the orchestra has never programmed the Third, the Six or the Seventh. This performance may be the beginning of complete Mahler coverage by the orchestra.

“The Mahler Third is not a symphony that orchestras program every year,” Mechetti says. “It’s one of those things you hope to do once a decade, not every season.”

Friday’s performance will mark the first time Mechetti, ending his fourth season with the symphony, has led the orchestra in Mahler.

“I was waiting for the right moment to do it,” the conductor says. “I wanted to have the opportunity for the orchestra and myself to work together for a while before taking on a work with this kind of challenge.”

The challenges of Mahler’s Third are formidable: a huge group of performers, six movements in place of the four found in most symphonies, and a performance time of nearly two hours without intermission.

Problems in the Third include the presence of choirs of boys and women but they don’t sing a note until the fifth movement, a full hour into the work. Mechetti’s solution is taking a short break between the third and fourth movements to allow the choirs to take their places.

The third movement has a long, complex solo for posthorn, a valveless instrument like the bugle. Practically no one uses the posthorn because of the difficulty playing it in tune. The trumpet has too bright a sound for the character of this solo. The flugelhorn, the trumpet’s bigger, darker-sounding cousin, sounds strained in the solo’s upper notes. Spokane Symphony trumpeter Larry Jess solved the problem by playing the part on a regular trumpet with a velvet bag over the instrument’s bell to darken the sound.

“The challenges are great,” Mechetti admits, “but the rewards are also great.

“None of Mahler’s other symphonies are so clear in what every movement represents - how he saw the struggle between man and nature and between life and death,” the conductor says. “Each movement represents his view about the world, about man, about, nature, about religion and about love.

“The Third is the most positive in outlook of all Mahler’s symphonies toward life and destiny and man’s place on earth,” Mechetti says, “probably because the years between his Second and Third Symphonies were among the happiest of Mahler’s life, both professionally and personally.”

Mezzo-soprano Linda Caple, the soloist for Friday’s performance, is a native of Spokane who now lives in California. Caple is a graduate of Fort Wright College, where she studied with Sister Marietta Coyle. Caple won the 1982 Northwest Artist Award in Seattle, the 1983 Metropolitan Opera National Award and the 1984 San Francisco Opera Award.

Richard Evans, chairman of the Whitworth College music department, will discuss Mahler’s music in a pre-concert talk beginning at 7 in the Opera House auditorium.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: The Spokane Symphony will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the Opera House. Tickets are $13 to $28, available at the symphony ticket office (624-1200), G&B Select-a-Seat outlets or call (800) 325-SEAT.