“Dazzling performance”: Mahlerfest in Melbourne & Sydney
Conductor Alexander Briger and his Australian World Orchestra and soprano Sarah Traubel were rewarded with immediate standing ovations after both performances of their extraordinary 2025 Mahlerfest programme of Symphonies no. 4 and 5 by Gustav Mahler in a single night, in concerts at the Melbourne Arts Centre and the Sydney Opera House. Two outstanding concerts that nobody in attendance will forget.
The concerts were praised in five-star reviews from Australia’s leading art critics. The Sydney Morning Herald commented on a “dazzling performance” at the Melbourne Arts Centre’s 2,500 seat Hamer Hall by an orchestra composed of some of the best Australian players from major orchestras around the world, including concertmasters and instrumental soloists the Berliner Philharmoniker, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, and the London Symphony Orchestra, among many others.
“Attention to details of balance, dynamics and articulation was well projected in a hall where these elements can sometimes be submerged.”
Eastside FM Australia observed: “The rich variety of tonal colour never ceased to amaze. (…) While the orchestra was expert at highlighting these motifs as they appeared, it was Briger’s genius to segue into and out of them to the flesh of the symphony, creating a seamless musical narrative with gems of familiarity glistening from within the fabric.”
“Her voice was clear as an alpine mountain stream.”
“And speaking of gem encrusted fabric, soprano Sarah Traubel made a dramatic entrance in a powder blue full length gown just before the final movement. Her presence on stage (heralded by a quasi-fanfare) was dominating as she made eye contact seemingly with every member of the audience. Her voice was clear as an alpine mountain stream as she sang the finale, a child’s view of what heaven must be like. The orchestra fell in step behind her, in awe and admiration of her interpretation. And like all great conductors, Briger was content to follow her lead and keep the orchestra in sync with her. The well-disciplined audience who had shown enormous restraint up till now, unleashed their applause.” (Eastside FM)
“Alexander Briger tapped into every subtle colour in his palette to create an ever-changing world of beauty.”
It was the uniquely iconic setting of the sold-out, 2,700 seat Sydney Opera House Concert Hall that hosted the second performance of this unusual programme, after the previous night’s concert in Melbourne. As Alexander Briger reminded us, a performance of both symphonies no. 4 and 5 in a single concert has only twice been done before, including in one concert led by Willem Mengelberg before the Second World War. Australia’s Limelight Magazine commented on Briger’s extraordinary conducting achievement: “More than 100 musicians filed on stage in the more familiar surroundings of Sydney Opera House’s Concert Hall with Briger on the rostrum, conducting both works from memory.” His interpretation of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony “evoked a feeling of childlike wonder” (Limelight) And in his Fifth Symphony, “the joyful emergence into the sunlight of the final bars of the Rondo lifted the roof off, bringing the audience to its feet like a rippling Mexican wave around the auditorium.”
Photos © Daniel Boud