Mahler 6 hammer on Youtube :-)

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Oh yes! 

http://www.youtube.com/v/UwljE3HsfSM

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Thanks for this! 

Every time I have attended a concert with Mahler's Sixth most people in the audience were amused by the hammer. The hammer is to Mahler what Fafner the dragon is to Wagner - a bit of an embarrassment, better heard than seen.

[Monsieur Croche]

Oh yeah, catchy isn't it?

The first time I see Mahler 6th live I was immediately hooked on this scene... Even after the performance ends, the vision of a hammer being brought down kept playing in my head over and over again... Suffice to say that after this particularly amazing display of virtuosity I had - suddenly and inexplicably - lost the ability to make out much of the details in the symphony, and this, I suspect, is not due to poor playing from the orchestra...

[MDL]

Thanks for this! 

Every time I have attended a concert with Mahler's Sixth most people in the audience were amused by the hammer. The hammer is to Mahler what Fafner the dragon is to Wagner - a bit of an embarrassment, better heard than seen.

How true! It does break the spell somewhat to see your neighbours sniggering and pointing as the poor percussionist waddles around with his hefty mallet waving in the air. I've seen one performance at a Prom where the hammer was replaced by the slamming of a door on a large wooden chest. It sounded OK but still looked a bit silly.

[Sergeant Rock]

Maybe I've just been lucky. No sniggers from the audiences in Cleveland (Szell, Abbado) or Germany (Segerstam conducting the Rheinland-Pfalz). I personally found the hammerblows to be, if not always musically, at least dramatically and theatrically effective--especially so under Segerstam, who reinstated the third hammerblow. It was quite a thrill to see that huge hammer raised a third time.

Sarge

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Maybe I've just been lucky. No sniggers from the audiences in Cleveland (Szell, Abbado) or Germany (Segerstam conducting the Rheinland-Pfalz). I personally found the hammerblows to be, if not always musically, at least dramatically and theatrically effective--especially so under Segerstam, who reinstated the third hammerblow. It was quite a thrill to see that huge hammer raised a third time.

Yes, you have been lucky, Sarge. As much as I love (and tremble at, when realized well) the effect of the hammer as a sound, seeing the thing was too much for the audiences I was in and made even me think of DIY more than cosmic tragedy...

[MDL]

Maybe I've just been lucky. No sniggers from the audiences in Cleveland (Szell, Abbado) or Germany (Segerstam conducting the Rheinland-Pfalz). I personally found the hammerblows to be, if not always musically, at least dramatically and theatrically effective--especially so under Segerstam, who reinstated the third hammerblow. It was quite a thrill to see that huge hammer raised a third time.

Sarge

You have been lucky. I've only seen Mahler 6 in London (Proms, Festival Hall, Barbican Centre). The worst pointers/sniggerers were either blonde female tourists or the kind of Chelsea-Kensington tossers who assumed that the off-stage cowbells were the result of some catastrophe with the caterers.

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

You have been lucky. I've only seen Mahler 6 in London (Proms, Festival Hall, Barbican Centre). The worst pointers/sniggerers were either blonde female tourists or the kind of Chelsea-Kensington tossers who assumed that the off-stage cowbells were the result of some catastrophe with the caterers.

So both London and Amsterdam (where I was) aren't exactly hammer-friendly... 

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

I personally found the hammerblows to be, if not always musically, at least dramatically and theatrically effective--especially so under Segerstam, who reinstated the third hammerblow. It was quite a thrill to see that huge hammer raised a third time.

Haven't heard M6 live, but at least I can say for someone not knowing M6, the 3rd hammer raises the symphonies ends surprise to a kind of "death by heart attack" level. At my very first listen, I didn't feel like sniggering as I was almost dead. My favorite M6 is the Chailly/Concertgebouw one, it has the 3rd hammer and I love it.