For a professional orchestra, programming the works of Gustav Mahler can be quite expensive because the music calls for such a large orchestra.

So this afternoon we were treated to an impressive performance by the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, under the direction of Carlo Rizzi. These musicians are from 16-22 years old but you’d never know it from the high level of performance. The biggest applause went to the horn player who absolutely nailed every entrance!

The audience kept clapping and clapping … until finally Rizzi held up his hand and said because they didn’t prepare an encore, they would just replay the third movement! Nah, just kidding! Because the concert started late, there was no interval, and the schedule was very tight, although I wouldn’t have minded hearing this fabulous orchestra play again.

Apparently the National Youth Choir of Wales gave an “electrifying performance” of this symphony at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford 2006. Herbert von Karajan once said that when you hear Mahler’s Fifth, “you forget that time has passed. A great performance of the Fifth is a transforming experience. The fantastic finale almost forces you to hold your breath.”

The concert began with Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and it was performed well in spite of the sometimes too quick tempos which muddled some of the vocal and instrumental lines.  The big solo in the second movement was sung by one of the boys singing falsetto, as his voice had already changed.

The Chichester Psalms was commissioned by Walter Hussey, the Dean of Chichester, who “could not be accused of aiming low: over the years he commissioned poetry from W H Auden, sculpture from Henry Moore, art from Graham Sutherland, tapestry from John Piper and stained glass from Marc Chagall.”

In negotiating with Bernstein, Hussey asked “I think many of us would be very delighted if there was a hint of West Side Story about the music; he could hardly have imagined that Bernstein would take him quite so literally as to include an abandoned song from the music, with Stephen Sondheim’s lyrics replaced by the Hebrew of Psalm 2.” (Timothy Symons)

And did you know that Bernstein “saw himself as the living embodiment of the older composer’s alll-embracing spirit, saying ‘I am Mahler’ on more than one occasion? Peter G. Davis wrote, “Small wonder that Bernstein is buried with the score of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony placed over his heart.”

Evensong and the evening concert were devoted to the works of Hubert Parry, who died 100 years ago in October 1918, one month before World War I ended. The extended anthem was “Hear my words,” while the organ postlude was “Chorale Prelude on the ‘Old 104th’ “. The congregation seemed quieter than usual, maybe because of the BBC Evensong the day before where quiet was absolutely essential (yet someone’s mobile phone went off during the organ prelude!)

“A Parry Centenary Tribute” featured three works by Parry: “Blest pair of sirens,” “Symphony No. 5,” and “Invocation to Music,” which showcased the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

Although the Three Choirs Festival goes on for two more days, I’m leaving for London today and staying in an airport hotel overnight. They just announced the program for next year’s Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester, and I’ve already booked my hotel!