de Waart conducted Mahler 3

I have been looking forward to this concert (Sat one) in the past few days. I have listened to quite a number of versions to prepare for it, including Bernstein, Abbado, Horenstein, MTT.

de Waart took the whole piece at a slow tempo, particularly the 1st, the 4th and the last movement. The brass is still the weakest link - the french horns were not together, the trumpets were flawed in intonation. Only the Trombones were OK. The woodwinds maintained their bright sound throughout. The strings have registered significant improvement compared with pre-de-Waart era. The guest concertmaster gave a very warm sound in her solo. The choir also performed well.

There were a number of accidents tonight, e.g. the assistant principal of the violas dropped her shoulder rest during a very quite passage, the solo trumpet was noticeably flat, etc. Some people left after the 1st movement. However, it was good that the audience did not clap between the movements.

All in all, it was a very powerful Mahler 3. de Waart has already done his best. I am satisfied with the performance. Perhaps I was sitting in the middle of the balcony, the acoustic was much better than last year's Mahler 2. I shall choose seats at the balcony in the future.