Reading back over my review of Norrington's recording of Mahler 9, I fear I may have been a little too kind. Because last night at the Proms, Mahler's great symphony was totally unrecognisable as played by the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR. At first I thought Norrington's infamous absence of vibrato was going to annoy. But I hadn't accounted for his scrappy, overloud, abrupt and unmoving performance. A dreadful account of a true masterpiece.

The problems do not lie with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR. Underneath their current surface lurks a superb band. Even if robbed of a necessary tool in its kit, the string sound managed to project some sense of warmth. The horns had similar strength and there was a typically Germanic heft to the brass section. Yet all these nascent qualities were straightjacketed by an unnatural approach, for which none of the players had trained and, judging by the lack of energy emanating from the platform, few enjoy. There was a defiant player on the third desk of the first violins, who couldn't help but 'warm' notes within a phrase. Good on her, but no doubt she will be sent to the Norrington naughty step.


When vibrato was allowed to emerge on a few solos (or without checking in the horns and woodwind), you got a tiny glimpse of what could have been. Well, what would have been if Norrington hadn't misread the work entirely. So forced were his tempi, so belligerent were the dynamics, that there was little or no sense of Mahler about the work at all. And when Norrington turned to the audience with a glib smile at the end of the second movement (à la Last Night), it was clear that this performance was nothing to do with Mahler. It had everything to do with Norrington.

It's fine to take a stance, bring a new reading. I for one defend the period performance movement for reinvigorating our thought processes and our performances. But orthodoxy is death. Applying aesthetics which are your own and pursuing them with all possible haste makes for a cold and heartless musical world. Never before have I wanted Mahler 9 to end. Not once have I left the concert hall totally unmoved by it. And I have never wanted to boo the place down. Norrington's tendentious performance provoked all of those things. In short it was anything but Mahler.