Tulsa Symphony Orchestra: Mahler’s Fifth
Tulsa Performing Arts Center
May 11, 2024
Since I moved to Tulsa last year, I’ve paired up with one of your fine gentlemen. We have a lot in common, but—as you might remember from my review of the Horszowski Trio—I’m a classical music nerd and he’s Mr. Outdoors. I’ve taken him to some Chamber Music Tulsa concerts, where the drink/food situation lured him in and the short program length kept him interested.
Mahler, though? Mahler’s works are not only intense, coming from the late romantic era right before composers ditched traditional harmonies and rhythms; they are also emotionally complex and incredibly long. The fifth symphony clocks in at 70 minutes, a challenging length even for a dork like me. For the Tulsa Symphony’s May 11 performance of Mahler’s Fifth, I prepped Mr. Outdoors as well as I could, playing him the symphony in our leisure time and giving him a few scintillating details of Mahler’s tumultuous life for cultural context.
It was the first time hearing the TSO for both of us. We pulled up at the PAC in his gigantic pickup, looking fancy. The hall was almost full, and the crowd was enthusiastic.
The program began with the presentation of the Ron Wheeler Music Educator of the Year Award to Jana and David Gorham, the Owasso High School band directors from 1989 until their retirements in 2014 and 2018. This caught Mr. Outdoors’ attention. “They were my daughter’s band directors!” he whispered to me. “They’re terrific!” It was wonderful to see an organization of the TSO’s professional caliber recognizing local public school teachers. That helped the audience connect with the TSO before the music even began.
The evening opened with Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, whose classical harmonies and lovely melodies were the perfect palate cleanser between whatever your Saturday had sounded like up to then and the Mahler main course. TSO’s concertmaster, Rossitza Goza, played the violin solos with a pure, radiant sound, and the crowd applauded her enthusiastically at the conclusion of the piece.