Blogs today are full of 150th birthday wishes for Gustav Mahler who was born on July 7th 1860 in the Bohemian town of Kalischt, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now in the Czech Republic. He did of course go on to become one of the most prominent musical figures in music I thought I would join in and share some of my favourite Mahler movements.
Last movement of the first Symphony played by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Although there are other wonderful moments in this Symphony the last movement is one of his most exciting. After a sudden dramatic and dissonant opening the music is driven forward for a full minute before you are given any firm ground to stand on, even then it's so busy that you struggle to work out what the music is doing. The second half (second video) can almost be thought of as one long build up capturing memories of the rest of the piece and is brilliantly paced. Also as an added bonus it has the best viola section moment (4:17) in the entire orchestral repertoire!
The Fourth Symphony is so different to the others with its smaller orchestration and more classical proportions and in the third movement Mahler has one of his most tender moments. The way the opening builds up gradually without turning into gushing sentimentality is heart wrenching and the ending (4:15 in the third video) where we see heaven open is one of these magical climaxes in late Romantic/early 20th Century music which you sense the whole movement has been building up to and which can leave you totally drained afterwards as it dies away, particularly as it keeps moving through unexpected key changes.
1 week ago
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