The Philadelphia Orchestra performs Janáček and Mahler

In spite of that fear, I have to admit there were times during Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass when I wished I had brought my bargain-basement tablet and given the app a try. Nowadays, I can usually concentrate on the music and ignore the printed text during a performance of the standard Latin Mass. There are times when you need to know where you are in the text, to fully understand the composer’s intentions, but key words like Sanctu and ressurexit will usually keep me oriented.

That doesn’t work when the composer opts for an unfamiliar language like Slavonic. There were times during the Glagolitic Mass when I found myself wondering what section I was hearing. Was that brief pause a rest or a section break? Are we still in the Credo? Have we reached the Sanctu yet, conductor? A real-time app, with the text scrolling across the screen in synchrony with the music, would have been less distracting than my frets about the text.

Patronizing the patrons?

I can think of other interesting uses for the app. I’ve often thought it would be nice to listen to a performance with a guide that told you, as you listened, exactly when you were hearing Theme A and Theme B in a sonata-form movement. I wouldn’t want to listen that way all the time, but it could be useful now and then.

Experienced listeners may feel that kind of guidance “dumbs down” the experience, but it could be a boon for novices. We are living in a time when American orchestras have to market themselves with all the craft and intensity of institutions engaged in a life-and-death struggle. If the orchestra’s app can help it attract newcomers, it deserves a tryout. It is, after all, merely a real-time version of the kind of information we gather when we read the traditional program notes before a performance starts.

The important issue is the product itself, not the marketing peripherals that surround it. The Orchestra’s October performances of the Glagolitic Mass and Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony were both examples of events that could have been distorted by the pressure to wow audiences. They are both major choral works, offering conductors endless opportunities to engage in grand, crowd-pleasing gestures. They were both led, in addition, by up-and-coming conductors who could be tempted to exaggerate the big climaxes and create easy, noisy thrills.

Impressive restraint

Instead, both conductors led balanced, emotionally restrained performances. Alan Gilbert avoided bombast in the big passages of the Glagolitic Mass and sentimentality in the softer moments. His work reflected a mature vision of Janáček’s music and the worldview behind it.

The decisive test of a Mahler performance, for me, is the conductor’s handling of the tender, poignant sections. Anybody can do the big stuff. Yannick Nézet-Séguin once again proved he can meet that test. The memorable moments in this performance included the warm, beautifully modulated massed cellos in the second section and the delicate section for plucked strings that came later. The climax sounded movingly lyrical — a good trick when you’re leading a big chorus and an oversize, stage-crowding orchestra.

Gilbert and Yannick are leading members of a cohort of young conductors who seem to have mastered the art of generating excitement without violating the integrity of their art. We can tolerate a little experimenting with marketing as long as we have people like them guarding the castle.