From his chamber music to his great symphonies, we'll sample the composer's music throughout the day on Thursday, on all the shows.
"Imagine the universe beginning to sing and resound," Mahler wrote of his Symphony No. 8, the "Symphony of a Thousand." "It is no longer human voices; it is planets and suns revolving." Mahler was late Romantic music's ultimate big thinker. In his own lifetime he was generally regarded as a conductor who composed on the side, producing huge, bizarre symphonies accepted only by a cult following.
- Rovi Staff
8:30 AM - Morning Light: Michael Wolch will have Mahler's Piano Quartet in A Minor (also referred to as the Piano Quartet Movement in A minor) featuring Daniel Hope on violin, Paul Neubauer on viola, David Finckel on the cello and Wu Han is the pianist.
Mahler began work on the Piano Quartet towards the end of his first year at the Vienna Conservatory, when he was around 15 or 16 years of age. The piece had its first performance on July 10, 1876 at the Conservatory with Mahler at the piano, but it is unclear from surviving documentation whether the quartet was complete at this time.
In several letters, Mahler mentions a quartet or quintet, but there is no clear reference to this piano quartet. Following this performance the work was performed at the home of Dr. Theodor Billroth, who was a close friend of Johannes Brahms. The final known performance of the Quartet in the 19th century was at Iglau on September 12, 1876, with Mahler again at the piano; it was performed along with a violin sonata by Mahler that has not survived.
It appears that at one point Mahler wished to publish the Quartet, since the surviving manuscript, which includes 24 bars of a scherzo for piano quartet written in G minor, bears the stamp of the publisher Theodor Rättig; it has been theorized that Mahler sent the work to him, but he rejected it.
Following the rediscovery of the manuscript by Mahler's widow Alma Mahler in the 1960s, the work was premiered in the United States on January 12, 1964, in New York City by Peter Serkin and the Galimir Quartet. Four years later it was performed in the United Kingdom on June 1, 1968 at the Purcell Room, London, by the Nemet Ensemble.
In popular culture
The Quartet forms part of the soundtrack in Martin Scorsese's 2010 motion picture Shutter Island and is the subject of a short discussion between the movie's characters. Its complete performance by the Pražák Quartet is featured on the movie's double-CD soundtrack.
10:45 AM - Intermezzo: Chris Wolf will play Mahler's Symphony No. 5--a recording by the Chicago Symphony with Sir Georg Solti at the helm.
This symphony was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at Mahler's cottage at Maiernigg. Among its most distinctive features are the trumpet solo that opens the work with the same rhythmic motive as used in the opening of Beethoven's 5th symphony and the frequently performed Adagietto.
The musical canvas and emotional scope of the work, which lasts over an hour, are huge. The symphony is sometimes described as being in the key of C♯ minor since the first movement is in this key (the finale, however, is in D major). Mahler objected to the label: "From the order of the movements (where the usual first movement now comes second) it is difficult to speak of a key for the 'whole Symphony', and to avoid misunderstandings the key should best be omitted."
The piece is generally regarded as Mahler's most conventional symphony up to that point, but from such an unconventional composer it still had many peculiarities. It almost has a four movement structure since the first two can easily be viewed as essentially a whole. The symphony also ends with a Rondo, in the classical style. Some peculiarities are the funeral march that opens the piece and the Adagietto for harp and strings that contrasts with the complex orchestration of the other movements.
The fourth movement - the adagietto - may be Mahler's most famous composition and is the most frequently performed of his works. The British premiere of the Fifth Symphony came 36 years after that of the Adagietto, conducted by Henry Wood at a Proms concert in 1909. Leonard Bernstein conducted it during the funeral Mass for Robert F. Kennedy at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Manhattan, on June 8, 1968. It was used in the 1971 Luchino Visconti film Death in Venice.
It is said to represent Mahler's love song to Alma. According to a letter she wrote to Willem Mengelberg, the composer left a small poem:
"Wie ich dich liebe, Du meine Sonne,
ich kann mit Worten Dir's nicht sagen.
Nur meine Sehnsucht kann ich Dir klagen und meine Liebe."
(How much I love you, you my sun,
I cannot tell you that with words.
I can only lament to you my longing and love.)
It lasts for approximately 10 minutes, and Mahler's instruction is sehr langsam (very slowly). Mahler and Mengelberg played it in about 7 minutes. Some conductors have taken tempos that extend it to nearly 12 minutes (viz. recordings by Eliahu Inbal, Herbert von Karajan, and Claudio Abbado), while Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performed it in 9½ minutes. Bernstein also briefly discusses this section along with the opening bars of the 2nd movement in his Charles Eliot Norton lectures from 1973.
The Adagietto has been used by figure skaters. Ekaterina Gordeeva commemorated her deceased husband, Sergei Grinkov, at the 1996 "Celebration of a Life". Ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, from Canada, performed their free dance at both the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2010 World Championships, winning the gold medal at both events.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._5_(Mahler)
2:00 PM - Diamond Lane: Sarah Jo Kirsch will offer up the opening movement of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 performed for us by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic
"It expresses an extraordinary love of the earth, for Nature." – Alban Berg
"It is music coming from another world, it is coming from eternity." – Herbert von Karajan
"It is terrifying, and paralyzing, as the strands of sound disintegrate ... in ceasing, we lose it all. But in letting go, we have gained everything." – Leonard Bernstein
"I believe it to be not only his last but also his greatest achievement." – Otto Klempere
The Ninth Symphony has been recorded over a hundred times for commercial release. Written between 1908 and 1909, and was the last symphony that he completed. It is actually his tenth symphonic work, since Mahler gave no ordinal number (nor the title 'symphony') to his symphonic song-cycle Das Lied von der Erde. Though the work is often described as being in the key of D major, the tonal scheme of the symphony as a whole is progressive. While the opening movement is in D major, the finale is in D-flat major.
A typical performance takes about 75–90 minutes.
A page from an autographed manuscript of Mahler's 9th Symphony
The first movement embraces a loose sonata form. The key areas provide a continuation of the tonal juxtaposition displayed in earlier works (notably the Sixth and Seventh symphonies). The work opens with a hesitant, syncopated rhythmic motif (which Leonard Bernstein suggested is a depiction of Mahler's irregular heartbeat), which is heard throughout the movement.
Mahler died in May 1911, without ever hearing his Ninth Symphony performed. The work's ending is usually interpreted as his conscious farewell to the world since it was composed following the death of his beloved daughter Maria Anna in 1907 and the diagnosis of his fatal heart disease. However, this notion is disputed inasmuch as Mahler felt that he was in good health at the time of the composition of the 9th Symphony; he had had a very successful season (1909–10) as the conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and, before that, the Metropolitan Opera (New York). In his last letters, Mahler indicated that he was looking forward to an extensive tour with the orchestra for the 1910–11 season. Moreover, Mahler worked on his unfinished Tenth Symphony until his death from endocarditis in May 1911.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._9_(Mahler)
8:00 PM - Dinner Classics: Host Terry Klippenstein will be serving up a complete meal of Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in a recording featuring Orchestre Métropolitan du Grand Montréal and conductor Yannick Nézet- Séguin.The exquisite Karina Gauvin is the soprano.
Mahler's first four symphonies are often referred to as the "Wunderhorn" symphonies because many of their themes originate in earlier songs by Mahler on texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn). The fourth symphony is built around a single song, "Das himmlische Leben". It is prefigured in various ways in the first three movements and sung in its entirety by a solo soprano in the fourth movement.
A typical performance of the Fourth lasts about an hour, making it one of Mahler's shorter symphonies. The performing forces are also small by Mahler's usual standard. These features have made it the most frequently performed Mahler symphony, though in recent years the First has gained ground.
Here is the text from the fourth movement:
The Heavenly Life
(from Des Knaben Wunderhorn)
We enjoy heavenly pleasures and therefore avoid earthly ones.
No worldly tumult is to be heard in heaven.
All live in greatest peace.
We lead angelic lives, yet have a merry time of it besides.
We dance and we spring, We skip and we sing.
Saint Peter in heaven looks on.
John lets the lambkin out, and Herod the Butcher lies in wait for it.
We lead a patient, an innocent, patient, dear little lamb to its death.
Saint Luke slaughters the ox without any thought or concern.
Wine doesn't cost a penny in the heavenly cellars;
The angels bake the bread.
Good greens of every sort grow in the heavenly vegetable patch, good asparagus, string beans, and whatever we want.
Whole dishfuls are set for us!
Good apples, good pears and good grapes, and gardeners who allow everything!
If you want roebuck or hare, on the public streets
they come running right up.
Should a fast day come along, all the fishes at once come swimming with joy.
There goes Saint Peter running with his net and his bait
to the heavenly pond.
Saint Martha must be the cook.
There is just no music on earth that can compare to ours.
Even the eleven thousand virgins venture to dance, and Saint Ursula herself has to laugh.
There is just no music on earth that can compare to ours.
Cecilia and all her relations make excellent court musicians.
The angelic voices gladden our senses, so that all awaken for joy.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._4_(Mahler)
Tue, Apr 30, 9:00 AM
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