Since becoming music director of the Utah Symphony, Keith Lockhart admits he has earned the reputation — unjustly, he feels — of being a conductor who's primarily interested in programming large-scale works.
That impression, he says, came about as a result of his reacquainting Salt Lake audiences with the music of Gustav Mahler. And he insists that it only describes a part of who he is as a conductor.
"I have this reputation for being a big-works conductor," Lockhart said during a telephone interview from Boston. "But I like contrast. I also like the (Utah Symphony's) chamber series. And along with the (Boston) Pops, I'm stretching myself as a musician about as much as possible."
However, he might have a hard time convincing anyone. Lockhart has been asked to conduct this year's O.C. Tanner Gift of Music concerts next weekend, and on the program is nothing less than Mahler's monumental Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand").
Lockhart didn't choose the program, however — selecting what works to be played on these concerts is up to the O.C. Tanner committee.
Still, he doesn't deny being thrilled with the choice. "The Eighth is tailor-made for the Tanner Gift of Music and what it's about," Lockhart said. "The goal of these concerts is to provide audiences with an incredible listening experience that you won't find anywhere else."
He added that it's important for concertgoers to know they'll be part of something special. "The last time it was done here was in the '60s. And I've never heard it live in my lifetime, and I'm sure it'll be a new experience for many in the audience."
Lockhart noted that the Eighth is seldom performed in concert. Huge forces are called for, and most concert halls don't have the space onstage. Besides an augmented orchestra requiring quintuple woodwinds, there are eight vocal soloists, two adult choirs and a children's choir.
For these concerts — in addition to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Symphony Chorus, the Southern Utah University Choir and a children's chorus made up of members from the Salt Lake Children's Choir — the International Children's Choir and the Choristers of the Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir School will also take part.
"We didn't quite get up to a thousand," Lockhart joked. "At last count we were around 950."
He said he feels a bit intimidated taking on the Eighth. "It's hard not to feel a little overwhelmed." And in spite of his fascination with Mahler's music, the Eighth has always been somewhat intangible and elusive. "Frankly, it took me longer to come to it than the other Mahler symphonies. It took me longer to get a handle on it."
Lockhart says the appeal it has had for him lies in its rich variety of orchestral writing. "It's a study in contrast. There is the grandiosity of the grand gestures and the size of the forces. And then there is the way he combines instruments into smaller ensembles together with the solo voices."
Mahler sets two different texts in his Eighth Symphony. The first part of the work uses the medieval hymn "Veni, creator spiritus," while the second incorporates the final scene from Goethe's "Faust." At first glance, these might seem to be two totally unrelated texts. But closer inspection reveals a philosophical connection.
"You have a sacred text and a secular one with strong sacred overtones," Lockhart explained. "The scene from 'Faust' is a morally instructive work — it deals with Faust's redemption — and the entire symphony is about what Mahler was seeking spiritually throughout his life. Mahler was religious, but not in the traditional sense — after all, he was a Jew who wrote the 'Resurrection' Symphony."
Because of personal tragedy — the death of his young daughter— as well as his own poor health and his incessant conflicts with the Vienna Opera, Mahler was a tormented soul desperately searching for a better existence. And this comes through in his "Symphony of a Thousand."
"Mahler invokes the holy spirit to enter our lives and shows us the transcendence of mortal man," Lockhart said. "It's about the concept of redemption, of leaving the earthly realm and entering a better one. Mahler was frantically involved in discovering what lay beyond."
Lockhart sees Mahler as a singular genius. "Mahler said that music should create its own world, and the Eighth is certainly a place that could only have been created by him."
Concert information
What: Tanner Gift of Music
Where: Salt Lake Tabernacle
When: Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15 and 16, 7:30 p.m.
How much: Free, but tickets are required; no tickets remain, but at approximately 7:15 p.m. unclaimed tickets will be released at the door
Web:www.lds.org
E-mail: ereichel@desnews.com