Review: Osmo Vänskä leads Minnesota Orchestra in bright, bold and bracing Mahler's Third Symphony

Each of Gustav Mahler's 10 symphonies is a sprawling epic, full of emotional tumult, whether drawing you close with quiet sadness or exploding with despair or exultation.

But none is as long as the Third — over 100 minutes of emotional extremes, full of sound and fury and signifying much about what the composer wished to say about his own bond with nature and humanity's place in it.

It's the symphony that the Minnesota Orchestra's conductor laureate, Osmo Vänskä, has chosen as the last work he'll record with the orchestra. They'll do so next week, but not before performing it three times at Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall. Thursday's midday presentation of Mahler's Third surely gave an almost-capacity crowd the musical odyssey it sought, for it was a bright, bold and bracing interpretation, bursting with all the emotional heft that 200-plus musicians can muster, and spiced with exquisite solos.

Vänskä's take on the Third seemed shaped by what Mahler described as his original intention for the symphony — a musical communing with nature and the channeling of a pastoral spirit. At times, it can be the merriest of Mahler, and Vänskä and the orchestra underlined that at every opportunity. Every exclamation was forceful and forthright, especially during the flamboyant first of the work's six movements.

This was a Third that emphasized awakening, more reveille than reverie. It was there in the opening fanfares, the exuberant marches and the involving extended soliloquies of trumpeter Manny Laureano and trombonist R. Douglas Wright.

But Vänskä also chose to bring out the dances within each movement. The minuet was a wild one, going from jaunty to maniacal, while the ensuing scherzando was as jolly and joyous as any Mahler you're likely to encounter. This is also where Laureano shone brightest, but did so from backstage, where his lovely melody seemed the serenade of an unseen ghost.

If one associates this composer with solemnity, it did arrive in the "Misterioso" fourth movement. This is where English mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston joined the journey, teaming with violinist Erin Keefe for a sad, commiserating dialogue that proved hypnotic. But the theme of awakening emerged again, with bells soon chiming literally and in the resonant tones of the Minnesota Boychoir and the women of the Minnesota Chorale adding their incandescent voices with some heavenly musing.

Yet, the most memorable aspect of this performance was the finale, a lengthy adagio that is simply some of the most beautiful music ever written. Yes, Mahler was known for deeply absorbing slow movements, but this is one with a melody full of yearning and wistfulness that could be mistaken for the prettiest hymn you've ever heard.

If you've yet to fall in love with the sound of a French horn, this could be the movement that does it for you, be it from the solos of Michael Gast or the way he and eight others fill the closing strains with triumphal tones. It's the ideal culmination of an interpretation full of a wide range of colors and contrasts. And of a symphonic cycle full of marvelous Mahler from Vänskä and the orchestra.

Minnesota Orchestra

With: Conductor Osmo Vänskä, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnston, women of the Minnesota Chorale and the Minnesota Boychoir.

What: Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony.

When: 8 p.m. Fri. and Sat.

Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $30-$104, available at 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.