"A Wayfarer's Journey: Listening to Mahler"

[bhodges]

Last night I did see this 90-minute film, billed as "an exploration of the critical relationship between music, healing and survival."  Filmed in Philadelphia, Tokyo and New York, the piece uses actors Kathleen Chalfant as narrator, and Richard Dreyfus as the voice of Mahler, reading some of his personal letters. 

Musical footage includes the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris in excerpts from various Mahler symphonies, and most excitingly, the orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music in Mahler's Symphony No. 1, all conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.  Also included is footage of Richard J. O'Reilly, MD (Chairman, Department of Pediatrics and Chief, Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), who shows how Mahler's work is being used in a therapeutic way.  [Not sure why other music wouldn't work, but perhaps that's beside the point.]

I enjoyed this, on its own terms, and the musical excerpts were excellent, especially the ones with the Curtis students.  Some of them were also interviewed, sharing their thoughts on the piece and on Mahler in general.  Kathleen Chalfant is her usual excellent self (just her voice here), and I even enjoyed Richard Dreyfuss, whose contributions reading Mahler's letters are well done without being over-dramatized.  Highly recommended, especially for someone perhaps just getting interested in the composer. 

--Bruce

[mahlertitan]

Last night I did see this 90-minute film, billed as "an exploration of the critical relationship between music, healing and survival."  Filmed in Philadelphia, Tokyo and New York, the piece uses actors Kathleen Chalfant as narrator, and Richard Dreyfus as the voice of Mahler, reading some of his personal letters. 

Musical footage includes the Philadelphia Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris in excerpts from various Mahler symphonies, and most excitingly, the orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music in Mahler's Symphony No. 1, all conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.  Also included is footage of Richard J. O'Reilly, MD (Chairman, Department of Pediatrics and Chief, Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), who shows how Mahler's work is being used in a therapeutic way.  [Not sure why other music wouldn't work, but perhaps that's beside the point.]

I enjoyed this, on its own terms, and the musical excerpts were excellent, especially the ones with the Curtis students.  Some of them were also interviewed, sharing their thoughts on the piece and on Mahler in general.  Kathleen Chalfant is her usual excellent self (just her voice here), and I even enjoyed Richard Dreyfuss, whose contributions reading Mahler's letters are well done without being over-dramatized.  Highly recommended, especially for someone perhaps just getting interested in the composer. 

--Bruce

did you see this on the HDTV channel? i am pretty sure it was not on the cable PBS channel.

[bhodges]

did you see this on the HDTV channel? i am pretty sure it was not on the cable PBS channel.

No, it was on "regular" PBS here, from 10pm to 11:30pm.  I would imagine they'll rebroadcast it, as they usually do, but if they don't it's available on DVD. 

--Bruce

[Iago]

I saw it on the HD channel.

Very well presented, but as usual, too talky and not enough music.
I would have been interested in knowing just what the exact problem was that Mahler had with his heart, and whether that same condition could be successfully treated today.

Also Mahler died well after the motion picture camera was invented, and I would have liked to see some film of him actually conducting. (The quality of the sound, if any, would not matter much).
I found this program to be much more a "hype" for Chistof Eschenbach than I did as an example of Mahlers psyche and music. I for one , am totally turned off by Eschenbachs feigned "esthetic" look, even though as the film points out, he had a difficult childhood. A bald head and bulging eyes do not, in and of themselves, make for a great Mahler conductor.
MTT and Salonen have full heads of hair and don't seem to need an "affectation" to be successful Mahler conductors.

A half-hour discussion by the late Leonard Bernstein followed by a performance of the "Resurrection" Symphony would have told me more about Mahler and his music than this program managed to do.

[jwinter]

A bald head and bulging eyes do not, in and of themselves, make for a great Mahler conductor.

Hey, it worked for George Szell 

I found this program to be much more a "hype" for Chistof Eschenbach than I did as an example of Mahlers psyche and music. I for one , am totally turned off by Eschenbachs feigned "esthetic" look, even though as the film points out, he had a difficult childhood.

I only managed to see about half of the program (my kids have the flu  ), but I have to agree that Eschenbach did come across as pretty darned pretentious in spots, even by "famous condutor interview" standards.  Perhaps the medical tie-in prompted him to wax philosophical a bit... I did find the show to be enjoyable overall, though.

[springrite]

Last time, for the first time, I played for Vanessa a DVD of Mahler song cycles, by Bernstein with VOP, Israel Phil, with various singers (Hampson most prominently). Vanessa thoroughly enjoyed it and told me she especially love the first two songs of Wayfarer ( because they contain music she's familiar with in the symphonies) and a few of the Wunderhorn songs.

But being a psychologist I observed her when she was listening and saw that she was most attentive and most absorbed by the music and moved emotionally by Kindetotenlieder. Maybe she is reluctant to admit how much she's moved by this music for much the same reason that Alma Mahler was upset by it. Vanessa is pregnant and the thought of losing the child is frightening.



This morning she told me kindertotenlieder is incredible music.