At the Halle aux Grains, Toulouse, for the opening concert of the 2024 – 25 season, with the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse under its new director, Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski.

Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 is a massive work utilising an enormous orchestra, choirs and soloists that deals with massive subjects such as death and resurrection. In a way it is a continuation of the journey begun in his First Symphony, but on a much larger scale.

I found this evening’s first movement to be a bit patchy with the exposition lacking a little tension; however, things were not helped by a large section of the audience surprisingly deciding to applaud about three-quarters of the way through. At the end of the first movement Tarmo Peltokoski unusually took Mahler’s full stipulated pause before launching the Andante and from here on the performance was excellent and it got better as it went on. The inner movements were impeccably executed with the woodwinds, brass and percussion being particularly impressive.

The work gets its name, ‘Resurrection’, from the final movement when the choir enters singing “Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n” (“Rise again, yes, rise again”). The joint choirs of l’Opéra national du Capitole and Radio France performed it superbly and the voices of the soloists, Finnish soprano Silja Aalto and German mezzo Wiebke Lehmkuhl, were clear and bright, even if their position in the middle of the orchestra meant that they didn’t soar above the brass as much as they might have done had they been at the front.

Overall, it was an extremely enjoyable beginning to the season and to Tarmo Peltokoski’s tenure, with much to look forward to.