Richard Strauss's early Burleske for piano and orchestra has never become a repertory staple, but it was chosen as an unusual upbeat to this Prom's main event – the epic tragedy of Mahler's vast Sixth Symphony. Conductor Semyon Bychkov did his duty by the piece, which never really marshals its patchy material to best effect. At this stage – Strauss was just 21 when he wrote it – the influences on his music of both Brahms and Liszt remain undigested. Yet its strange and not entirely convincing amalgam of quirky, idiosyncratic humour with refined lyricism found a notable exponent in soloist Kirill Gerstein, who attacked its virtuoso demands with a combination of brilliance and sensitivity.
It was inevitably dwarfed by the Mahler in the second half. Bychkov's approach to the work was almost classical in its restraint; while he's the last conductor to wear his heart on his sleeve, that heart was clearly beating throughout. What impressed throughout the 85-minute span of the piece was the tension and cohesion Bychkov maintained until the final crushing bars and even afterwards into the long ensuing silence. His command of the score – he barely glanced at the copy in front of him, turning pages seemingly without referring to them – was absolute.
As on several previous occasions, he drew the very best from the hard-working BBC Symphony Orchestra, here on their ninth challenging programme of the current season. The expanded brass section was bold and tireless, the woodwind solos vividly characterised, and the strings supplied a tonal warmth that retained a distinctive patina in the hesitant melodic flow of the slow movement. The large percussion battery attacked their multifarious interventions with all the requisite panache.
Mahler experts and interpreters will continue to dispute the ideal order of the two inner movements, and whether or not the finale should contain a third hammer blow. Bychkov placed the scherzo second and did away with what Alma Mahler referred to as the third "blow of fate" – choices that were entirely vindicated in this memorable performance.
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