Mahler 3 at San Francisco Symphony

Davies Symphony Hall

Photo by Lisa Hirsch

SFS closed out the season last month with Mahler's Third Symphony, a 90+ minute monster. This was only Esa-Pekka Salonen's outing with the composer at SFS, following a Mahler 2 ("Resurrection") during the 2022-23 season. Sadly, the 2024-25 season will close with Mahler 2, Salonen's last program as music director.

• Lisa Hirsch, SF Chronicle
• David Bratman, SFCV
• DB at Kalimac's Corner
• Previously: Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle (Mahler 2)
• Previously: Lisa Hirsch, SFCV (Mahler 2)

I think we're all hearing the same thing in Salonen's Mahler: From Joshua's review in 2022: 

Where Thomas insinuates, Salonen speaks out bluntly. Where Thomas works in chiaroscuro — layering over the orchestral texture with faint shadows and whispers of countermelodies — Salonen works in bold, bright colors. Thomas is perhaps more attuned to the composer’s corrosive irony, Salonen to the forthrightness with which he proclaims his emotional themes.

Obviously, there is no right or wrong here. These are both legitimate ways to understand the slippery, protean voice that Mahler brings to all his orchestral music. A conductor has to choose, at least for the duration of a single performance, but we in the audience don’t.

How you feel about their different styles is very much a matter of taste.