Gustav Mahler believed the symphony “must contain everything.” In the composer’s Fifth Symphony, the tripartite structure presents and holds together a musical picture of the human subconscious at a crisis. Mahler’s abstract approach mixes abrupt outbursts with mournful passages — without warning — as clashing sounds wrestle with the necessary conclusion posited by the composer’s auditory allusions to the Nietzschean perspective: meaning must be derived from within.
On Wednesday, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra captured all of Mahler’s dramatic philosophical overtones with a magnificent Bravo! Vail residency opener. From the unaccompanied trumpet solo to the pensive Adagietto movement, conductor Fabio Luisi painted from a musical palate of colorful expressions — with shocking orchestral dissonances giving way to hopeful horns — to present a summation of Mahler’s search for purpose through death, life and love. The evening opened with Daniil Trifonov’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.
9. The Russian, whom The Times of London hailed as “without question the most astounding pianist of our age,” showed why he is one of the world’s leading classical virtuosos during the three-movement work. He transformed the Andantino from a contemplative lull between two spritely movements into a powerful expression of exquisite control.
Even with eight keys simultaneously pressed, the 33-year-old elegantly isolated the most important pitch in every chord .
