Those of a certain age will remember when performances of Mahler's supersized symphonies were a rarity, perhaps hard to imagine with their current level of popularity.
Past difficulties in developing devoted audiences for the works are understandable. Built on diverse strands - febrile terror, radiant optimism, nature's harmony, to name a few - conductors are faced with the Frankenstein challenge of bolting together these disparate parts into a convincing whole, either within individual movements, requiring a quicksilver sensitivity, or across the whole symphony, demanding an insightful understanding of Mahler's overall blueprint.
Jaap van Zweden was the scheduled conductor for this concert but had to withdraw after injuring his shoulder. So in came replacement Vassily Sinaisky, who proved that clouds don't always carry silver linings.