Otto Nicolai concert, 18 February 1900

THE annual benefit concert for the sickness fund of the Philharmonic Orchestra was held earlier than normal in the 1899–1900 season, between the sixth and seventh concerts in the subscription series rather than at the end. The previous year Mahler had conducted a performance of his own Second Symphony; this year he chose Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the first time he had conducted the work in Vienna. He assembled unusually large forces. Following the practice of doubling the wind instruments, the orchestra probably numbered over a hundred, but the choir was five times that size, drawn from the combined forces of the chorus of the court opera, the Singakademie, and the well-established amateur male choir of the Schubertbund.

Sheer numbers were useful throughout ‘An die Freude’, but the desire that the male voices should be powerful enough reveals a particular concern for a major turning point in the work: the moment when the choir and orchestra suddenly halt their singing of ‘Freude, schoner Gotterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium’ and turn to a new text, ‘Seid umschlungen, Millionen. Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt’. The tempo changes from Allegro assai vivace to Andante maestoso, the key falls down from D major to G major, and tenors and basses, accompanied by cellos, double basses and bass trombone, declaim the new text to a new theme. Mahler's performances were vividly characterized by extremes of expression, ruthlessly controlled and delivered. Here the Andante maestoso marking was probably taken at a slower tempo than Viennese audiences were accustomed to and the contrasts of the subsequent Adagio ma non troppo, ma divoto were certain to have been delivered with maximum theatricality – piano, exaggerated swellings of tone, the beginning of a crescendo from piano that is turned back to pianissimo, followed by a crescendo to a full-toned fortissimo.

The hall had been sold out and the performance was so compelling that a repeat performance, with all the logistical problems of assembling the large forces once more at short notice, was organized for the following Thursday.