An omen? PRSO opens season with Mahler’s ‘Tragic’
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
By Peggy Ann Bliss
Special to The Star
The so-called “Tragic” 6th Symphony in A Minor by Gustav Mahler will headline the opening night of the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra’s (PRSO) current classical season Saturday.
While it might seem a bit theatrical, even melodramatic, the traditional nickname seems to presage the imminent departure of the group’s musical director and guiding light for the past 18 years, Maximiano Valdés.
Entitled “Máximo Momento,” the 14-concert season, which ends May 9, 2026, will showcase several guest conductors from all over the globe, including some musicians well known to local audiences.
Valdés, who will conduct the opening night monster symphony, was tapped for his present post in 2008, after a 16-year stint at the head of the Asturias Symphony in Spain. In that time, the PRSO has been threatened by a hurricane, a pandemic and a general fiscal crisis, which has limited some of the growth its classical music community had envisioned for it.
Nevertheless, it was just “the right time to move on; it is important for these musicians to be exposed to new ideas,” said Valdés, 75, at a recent press gathering.
The season’s last concert, the Chilean conductor said, will, not coincidentally, feature another Mahler symphony, the Third, rarely played by the PRSO, like all of the Austrian composer’s works, because of their length, difficulty and increased instrumentation.
Saturday’s concert, which begins at 7 p.m. in the Pablo Casals Symphony Hall at the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center in Santurce, will be an exclusive showcase for the mammoth symphony, which can take up to 90 minutes to perform, depending on the tempi (speeds) chosen by each conductor.
The piece was premiered in 1906 in Saalbau Essen, the then futuristic concert hall in Essen, Germany, conducted by the composer.
“No piece of music is strong enough to appear on the same program with (Mahler’s Sixth),” said Elena Sherbanesco, a member of the first violin section who retired in 2021 after 19 years.
Mahler’s personal instructions to the score calls for six tympani (instead of the usual two), eight French horns instead of the usual five, four harps in place of two, and enlarged sections of brass and woodwinds, among other additions in “instrumentation” such as cowbells and a “hammer which makes a dull thud.”
The PRSO, which had a roster of 75 active members and five on leave as recently as last season, would have had to contract additional musicians to fulfill Mahler’s instructions.
This has most likely been done, according to former principal clarinetist Kathleen Jones, who retired last year after 42 years with the orchestra.
“The extra musicians would have to have been budgeted at the beginning of the year, and I am sure [Valdés] would have done that,” she noted to The STAR.
The orchestra, which is partially funded by the island Legislature, has two other permanent conductors, both Puerto Rican: Emeritus Conductor Roselín Pabón, a veteran of over 40 years, and Associate Musical Director Rafael Enrique Irizarry, who was tapped for his present position 10 years ago. Previously he was the first horn player for many years.
Guillermo Figueroa also held the titular position for 16 years. He will be on a roster of conductors from abroad who will be featured this season, although no candidate has yet been proposed for the prestigious long-term position. Among fresh faces audiences will see on the podium this season are Joanne Falletta, a favorite of local audiences from the United States; Enrico Fagone, the celebrated musical director of the Long Island (New York) Concert Orchestra, and the much sought after José María Moreno from Malaga, Spain, among others.