Mahler at the Royal Concert Hall

Last weekend was quite busy – we had the grandsons to mind, friends round to eat, out to Sunday lunch, and then to a concert Sunday evening.

When I booked the concert I didn’t realise how hectic the weekend would turn out to be, which is a good thing, as otherwise I might have chickened out, and missed a really great experience.

The concert was at Nottingham’s Royal Concert Hall, built in 1982. When we first moved here, after London and even Sheffield, Nottingham was quite a step down – there was only one theatre, and classical concerts were in the Albert Hall, a huge Methodist church, with pretty poor acoustics. But then the Royal Theatre was restored and reopened, and shows excellent touring productions. Only I wish they hadn’t stuck with the Victorian seating – Victorian people seemed to have been a lot narrower, with legs about half the length of modern British people, with the result that anywhere but the stalls is cripplingly uncomfortable.  But the real triumph was that they added a concert hall behind the theatre, with superb acoustics. It was the forerunner and inspiration for some other modern concert halls, such as in Birmingham and Manchester.  And the seats are comfortable!

Since we now have a suitable venue, we get much better concerts, and last Sunday’s  was really special. There was a wonderful  performance of Mozart’s 5^th Violin Concerto,  but the prime event was Mahler’s Symphony No.6. There were more than a hundred musicians on stage, including six percussionists. I had not realised how literal the “hammer blows of fate” were – one percussionist was equipped with an actual sledge hammer, something I’ve never seen before. It is a great privilege to be able to walk out of our flat and hear something like this concert so easily. We often find ourselves quoting “The Quangle Wangle’s Hat” – when all these creatures move, what a  wonderful noise there’ll be.

The noise is amazing – although it is wonderful, I do slightly tend to find Mahler somewhat self indulgent, length for the sake of it, but all these people, working so hard, so skilled, for us – it’s a thrilling thought.  And we have Mahler’s Ninth Symphony to look forward to next year.

While I’m praising Nottingham’s main music venue, I must mention the Djanogly Recital Hall, on the University campus – again, it has superb acoustics, and so we get a wonderful programme of chamber music. I do worry that, apart from some music students, we seem to be young blood at string quartet concerts. Does it take many years to acquire a taste for them? Or are they going out of fashion?