Intrigued by the Mahler discussions, I picked some symphonies up from the library; 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. I plan to listen to one this evening; I'm looking forward to it.
(http://www.doppelgriff.com/mahleredt.jpg)
start w/# 2. you got a bunch of music there!
dj
Quote from: OzRadio on March 20, 2008, 03:36:29 PM
Intrigued by the Mahler discussions, I picked some symphonies up from the library; 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. I plan to listen to one this evening; I'm looking forward to it.
I hope you enjoy them. :) Symphonies 2 and 9 are my favorites. What recordings did you get?
Quote from: OzRadio on March 20, 2008, 03:36:29 PM
Intrigued by the Mahler discussions, I picked some symphonies up from the library; 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. I plan to listen to one this evening; I'm looking forward to it.
Although I do not consider Mahler to be among my most favorite composers Symphony No.2 is REMARKABLE!
marvin
Exciting! But it's the 2nd and 3rd and 4thtimes!
Quote from: Kasper Meier on March 20, 2008, 03:48:09 PM
Do you really think so? Of those that OzRadio has checked out, I'd say that the Fourth Symphony is arguably the most accessible for one unaccustomed to Mahler.
I say jump in with both feet and listen to Symphony 2. ;D
Taken this step when I first joined here .. it was the sixth. >:D
If you're EXTRAORDINARILY DARING, try the 9th.
Quote from: Kasper Meier on March 20, 2008, 03:48:09 PM
Do you really think so? Of those that OzRadio has checked out, I'd say that the Fourth Symphony is arguably the most accessible for one unaccustomed to Mahler.
Just my opinion, you understand?
entirely possible...but i started on 1 & 2.
dj
Quote from: bassio on March 20, 2008, 04:03:45 PM
Taken this step when I first joined here .. it was the sixth. >:D
Yeah, baby!
;D Seriously, starting with the 2nd is a good move. You might take them sequentially, which would give you some insight into how Mahler developed over time. That's a big part of the Mahler experience.
Listen to the Resurrection Symphony (#2) on Easter weekend .......
I'm pretty slow, it took me like a month to grow into the 2nd. Maybe you're faster, but still I don't see ya getting the real full whammy out of all those symphonies in one library checkout time. I echo dj, start with the 2nd. It is a tremendous work.
Either 1, 2, or 4 seems to me one's best bet for starting with Mahler. The first time I heard 6 and 9 they just went past me. At this point from 8 I like only the first movement.
I chose the 2nd, as recommended by several. This recording was done by the San Francisco symphony, looks like a 2004 recording. I'm certainly not the classical afficianado most here are, but I really enjoyed this piece. If I didn't finish it so late I would have played it through again. I never knew what to expect; just when I got comfortable with a passage he'd slap me around and drag me off in another direction. Kept me on my toes. And it was so expressive, alternating between massive emotional highs and lows. Hopefully I can get to it again this morning with minimal interruption from the kids. Thanks for the recommendation.
Hey, Oz. The Second was my initial Mahler experience too. Klemperer, borrowed from the library when I was 17. It made a tremendous impression on me. I recall boring my girlfriend to death the next day, describing it to her. I couldn't stop talking about it. Some will think it odd, but of all his music, it was the Fourth Symphony I had trouble getting into...and the Third. For years I couldn't make any headway past that glorious first movement.
Sarge
i recommend going from low to high: 4, 6, 8, 9..... that way you save the best for last. ;)
Quote from: OzRadio on March 21, 2008, 04:36:27 AM
I chose the 2nd, as recommended by several. This recording was done by the San Francisco symphony, looks like a 2004 recording.
Tilson Thomas? Yep, that's a good recording too, that, Klemperer's, lots of good recordings out there.
Quote from: OzRadio on March 21, 2008, 04:36:27 AM
I chose the 2nd, as recommended by several. This recording was done by the San Francisco symphony, looks like a 2004 recording. I'm certainly not the classical afficianado most here are, but I really enjoyed this piece. If I didn't finish it so late I would have played it through again. I never knew what to expect; just when I got comfortable with a passage he'd slap me around and drag me off in another direction. Kept me on my toes. And it was so expressive, alternating between massive emotional highs and lows. Hopefully I can get to it again this morning with minimal interruption from the kids. Thanks for the recommendation.
Hey glad you enjoyed M2 but seriously DON'T STOP UNTIL THE WHOLE THING'S DONE! It is universally acknowledged that the finale of the piece is the climax, the zenith, the summit, the whatever you call it....
Seriously, you won't regret it. Listen to the finale. Now. ;)
Make sure you give the 9th a few chances. It was my first Mahler Symphony (Kubelik's) that I really learned to enjoy. The others always seemed too unfocused, and I confess I still don't enjoy them much, though I've started to like the 6th. But the 9th is extraordinary (though it took me a while to get my head around it).
Quote from: GGGGRRREEG on March 21, 2008, 06:21:47 AM
i recommend going from low to high: 4, 6, 8, 9..... that way you save the best for last. ;)
Is no. 4 Mahler's "low" numbered symphony?
Quote from: spaghetti on March 21, 2008, 10:40:25 AM
Make sure you give the 9th a few chances. It was my first Mahler Symphony (Kubelik's) that I really learned to enjoy. The others always seemed too unfocused
Maybe this quote, which I looked up for Jezetha the other day, will help you begin to understand Mahler's style. La Grange is discussing the first movement of the Third but it could apply to any of his symphonies: focus is exactly what the music is
not about:
In this movement the composer's vision is the essential driving force, and the doors of music are thrown wide open to all. Seen in this perspective, the "ruptures" in style cease to appear as such. Karlheinz Stockhausen, who has sought to introduce into his work the same universal approach, has pointed out, as perhaps the most striking moments in Mahler's works, those when "the gates fly open and the dancing mob bursts in." This happens in no other work of Mahler so often as in the opening movement of the Third. The contrasts of style are nowhere so glaring, or to my mind so convincing, as a revolutionary and sacrilegious effort to admit all styles and, perhaps for the first time time in history, to allow the "banal," the "ugly," and the "vulgar" into the sacred precincts of symphonic form. Krenek defines the result as "surrealistic," for Mahler truly defies all rules, all criteria, all conventions. This is one of the principal reasons why he is classed today among the boldest explorers and pioneers and hailed as a precursor by so many of today's musicians.
Henry-Louis de La Grange,
Mahler
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on March 21, 2008, 05:00:09 AM
Some will think it odd, but of all his music, it was the Fourth Symphony I had trouble getting into...and the Third. For years I couldn't make any headway past that glorious first movement.
Sarge
I'm that way still about the 2nd. The first movement amazes me, the vocal parts enthrall me...but I'm still not totally convinced as to the rest. Or maybe I just favor the 6th and 9th too much.
Quote from: Kasper Meier on March 21, 2008, 01:46:40 PM
For me, the Fourth was the most immediate. Bernstein's version makes me want to die, it's so sublime.
Which Bernstein recording would that be? I've got his 6th with the NYPO and I'm starting to like it.
Quote from: Kasper Meier on March 21, 2008, 01:46:40 PM
For me, the Fourth was the most immediate. Bernstein's version makes me want to die, it's so sublime.
I didn't connect with the Fourth until a decade had past after I'd first caught the Mahler bug. It was hearing a live performance by Maazel and the Cleveland Orchestra, with the ravishing sounding and looking Frederica von Stade singing, that finally did it.
Sarge
Quote from: Kasper Meier on March 21, 2008, 01:46:40 PM
For me, the Fourth was the most immediate. Bernstein's version makes me want to die, it's so sublime.
I have a severe allergy to boy sopranos, so Bernstein's DG Fourth has always disappointed me...at least that fourth movement. His NY Phil performance with Reri Grist I like better (and she has the right timbre for the music) but I think he rushes it. I prefer a finale with a "heavenly" length (Maazel, Chailly, Szell).
Sarge
Quote from: Sergeant Rock on March 21, 2008, 11:08:31 AM
Maybe this quote, which I looked up for Jezetha the other day, will help you begin to understand Mahler's style. La Grange is discussing the first movement of the Third but it could apply to any of his symphonies: focus is exactly what the music is not about:
In this movement the composer's vision is the essential driving force, and the doors of music are thrown wide open to all. Seen in this perspective, the "ruptures" in style cease to appear as such. Karlheinz Stockhausen, who has sought to introduce into his work the same universal approach, has pointed out, as perhaps the most striking moments in Mahler's works, those when "the gates fly open and the dancing mob bursts in." This happens in no other work of Mahler so often as in the opening movement of the Third. The contrasts of style are nowhere so glaring, or to my mind so convincing, as a revolutionary and sacrilegious effort to admit all styles and, perhaps for the first time time in history, to allow the "banal," the "ugly," and the "vulgar" into the sacred precincts of symphonic form. Krenek defines the result as "surrealistic," for Mahler truly defies all rules, all criteria, all conventions. This is one of the principal reasons why he is classed today among the boldest explorers and pioneers and hailed as a precursor by so many of today's musicians.
Henry-Louis de La Grange, Mahler
I think I just need to give each work a lot of time before I can appreciate it. I recently got Sinopoli's recording of the seventh, and it definitely has that "surreal" quality. Very challenging music, but I think I enjoy it because it sounds a bit more modern than his others, and not quite so overtly "late romantic." I still find the third a bit overreaching, but perhaps I just need more time with the others.
I suppose any old Mahler thread will do........I have just seen an advert for the LSO issue of a live 6th conducted by Gergiev.
I had read that his contract would prohibit any LSO issues on their bargain label; evidently not.
Mike
Quote from: OzRadio on March 20, 2008, 03:36:29 PM
Intrigued by the Mahler discussions, I picked some symphonies up from the library; 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. I plan to listen to one this evening; I'm looking forward to it.
You lucky, lucky man!
I wish I was starting out all over a again - you are going to have an incredible journey.
May I recommend the David Hurwitz book
The Mahler Symphonies: An Owner's Guide and the Blaukopt biography for some great background reading on the great man and his music.
I also recommend that you start from the beginning with Symphony 1 and work your way through. Personally, I felt this was the best way for me and I believe that Mahler's works are like a narrative running alongside his life. At the most fundamental level, his works stand as one unit and move from his early romantic works to his adumbration of modernism and more questioning/philosophical and despairing works.
Enjoy your journey my man. ;)
D.