Gustav Mahler's Sinfonía núm. 2 "Resurrección" opened the new season of the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in a controlled, demanding performance. It was Kent Nagano's first appearance as the orchestra's new chief conductor and artistic director. The central tension was clear from the start: this was Mahler without inflated rhetoric, yet it still reached solemnity and emotional force.
The final movement showed Nagano at his best. He shaped the long rise with patience and order. The text and music came together as a universal civil liturgy, not a blast of sheer volume. The reading was serious and notably coherent. The brass, though, turned abrupt at times, and its balance slipped at the most charged points.
Platea Magazine reported that the 2026/27 OCNE season comprises 119 concerts spanning symphonic and chamber music, alongside choral performances.
That restraint set Nagano apart from the more openly exalted Mahler associated with Leonard Bernstein and Teodor Currentis's memorable Madrid performance last March. The Californian conductor prioritized structure and precision, while keeping sound quality in focus. His reading looked toward the musical language of the twentieth century without giving up intensity or transcendence.
The National Orchestra responded at a high level. The double basses were positioned on the left, giving the opening movement more weight and definition. Nagano's close control of the dynamics also brought out the details of the funeral march and its dramatic design. The mood stayed solemn, without gratuitous theatrical effects.
The second movement had a very different character. Its Ländler moved with ease and polish, especially in the woodwinds. It sounded more like an aristocratic palace dance than a village celebration in Central Europe.
Before Nagano became the OCNE's chief conductor and artistic director, he had conducted the orchestra four times between 2014 and 2024. Platea Magazine reported that his appointment begins a five-year period that will include several programmes, including a Schubert cycle.
That elegance came at a cost. The third movement missed some of Mahler's irony, even though the strings, led by concertmaster Valerie Steenken, played with distinction.
Christina Bock brought musicality and good taste to Urlicht, the song from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. A genuine contralto can be hard to find for this repertoire. The mezzo-soprano instead brought a pleasing timbre and more presence than Jane Archibald. Archibald's soprano was practically inaudible beside the chorus. That lack of projection kept the finale's captivating vocal contrast from fully emerging. The official programme and RTVE's concert broadcast identified Archibald and Bock as the two soloists.
Directed by Miguel Ángel García Cañamero, the chorus had a broad, powerful sound, with its sections closely blended. It gave the final movement the mass and depth Mahler's vision demands. The orchestral balance became less secure at points.
The concert began with Deseo tomó delicia, a commission from the OCNE by Mikel Urquiza (Bilbao, 1988), written for chorus and harp, with brass and percussion also in the scoring. The work joins elements of ancestral ritual with sounds linked to nature, especially birdsong. Nagano presented it with technical control and close attention to its internal design. He then moved directly into Mahler's Second Symphony, underlining the connection between the two pieces. Opera Actual and other Spanish cultural publications had identified Urquiza's work as a new OCNE commission in the advance programme.
A premature, misplaced shout of "bravo" broke the spell at the end of Mahler's score. It was a small interruption after a performance that had maintained an unusually disciplined atmosphere.
At the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid from 18 to 20 September 2026, the OCNE did more than open a season: it introduced the working method of its new chief conductor. Nagano's Mahler was sober and lucid, carefully built with large musical weight. Uneven soprano projection and isolated brass excesses kept the performance from being definitive. The orchestra's control and the authority of the final architecture made it a convincing opening statement for the new OCNE era. El País and Beckmesser treated the debut as a impressive event; Bachtrack also noted the strong reception and the orchestra's compact, focused sound.
