This concert featured baritone Russell Braun as soloist in the Mahler work. Aside from the two composers, Braun was the reason for the choice. I so liked the maturity of voice he displayed on his CBC Records CD, Winterreise (Winter Journey) featuring songs by Schubert that I felt he would be ideally suited to sing the five-songs cycle.

Mahler had chosen five of many, many Friedrich Rückert songs the poet had written to lament the death of two of his children. When Mahler began the cycle in 1901, he had no children, when he completed it in 1904, he had two daughters. Sadly, three years later he lost the youngest to the childhood scourge of scarlet fever and diphtheria. These songs are heartrending, tender, and in the end, radiate hope of something beyond death not just in the words of Rückert but in Mahler's music. Braun's rendition of this song cycle captured all of these qualities even if he did not always reach perfection. Overall he once again displayed the mature mix of voice and soul that we unconsciously seek.

The Coriolan was another pull even if the Eroica is the more famous work. Having seen Shakespeare's version of the Coriolanus story this summer at Stratford, Beethoven's interpretation of this ancient Roman legend aroused curiosity. Just how would the TSO interpret this short overture that offers no relief from the emotional intensity this tragedy requires? The orchestra, under maestro Oundjian, performed with thorough attention to Beethoven's score and played with a kind of gutsyess that suits the Coriolan's heroic theme well.

To anyone not familiar with the story of the Eroica, let it be said that Beethoven composed this tremendous piece for Napoleon and then removed his name from the work when the supposed democrat and savior of France turned out to be just another tyrant. Having proclaimed himself emperor, Napoleon fell out of Beethoven's favor. By the time the work was published in 1806—it had its first performance in 1805—Austria and France were at war. So it became the 'Sinfonia eroica' instead of the 'Bonaparte'. On listening to the work, of course, we can sense the figure that had inspired Beethoven behind the score. But, it is just as well that he scratched the name off the original title page, for it is never a good idea to dedicate something to living 'heroes'. They have a tendency to display leaden feet and less than illustrious souls. The TSO performed the Eroica with a singularly sharp mind, especially under the leadership of Oundjian, who understands the old master exceptionally well.

Once again the TSO showed it is an orchestra to be reckoned with and deserves far greater attention internationally than it has up to now.