Performing Arts

FORT WORTH – For sheer sonorous ecstasy, few musical moments can challenge the end of Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony. Having initially whispered a promise of resurrection, the chorus now roars it triple-forte. And, after a delicious harmonic crunch, the orchestra – literally, with bells and whistles and just about anything else that can make noise – loudly proclaims a triumphant E-flat major.

The very walls of Bass Performance Hall must have strained at the sonic onslaught Sunday evening as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra finished its performance of the Resurrection Symphony. The choral finale was a chills-down-the-back experience and a splendid close to three Mahler symphonies (Nos. 6, 7 and finally 2) in as many evenings.

The FWSO maybe didn't play with quite the polish it had brought to the other two symphonies. Chances are we'd be tired, too, if we'd had to serve up these three fiercely demanding works in a row. The offstage brass hardly sounded "in the far distance," as the score directs.

But it was still an impressive accomplishment, again with stirring blasts from the brass and particularly fine solos from Michael Shih (violin), Jennifer Corning (oboe), Stewart Williams (English horn) and Ana Victoria Luperi (clarinet). Several Dallas Symphony musicians helped fill out the expanded ensemble.

It must have been tricky mustering a chorus just before the start of the academic year, but the Southwest Seminary Master Chorale (David Thye, chorus master) sang with authority and good balance (if with some flat Texas vowels in the German text). Susanne Mentzer hadn't quite the Earth Mother richness one wants for the solo-alto part, but both she and soprano Jessica Rivera sang feelingly and well.

The concert started almost 20 minutes late, reportedly because FWSO music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya wasn't feeling well. So maybe we can give him some slack for some odd tempos in the first and last movements.

In both cases, the slow tempos were too slow, sometimes lugubriously so. Mahler marks the symphony's opening at between 84 and 92 beats per minute; Mr. Harth-Bedoya must have been closer to 66, which is a big difference. Fast tempos tended toward the hectic.

The rest of the symphony went at plausible paces, but once again the music wanted more freedom to expand and contract. Even when the score says to slow down at crucial cadences, Mr. Harth-Bedoya could barely bring himself to do so.

But let us cheer a performance – indeed, three performances – of an authority and finesse that would have been unimaginable even five years ago. The FWSO has come a long way.