Will Listen to my first Mahler this evening

[Sergeant Rock]

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

[Haffner]

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.

[O Delvig]

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.

[Sergeant Rock]

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

[Sergeant Rock]

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

[O Delvig]

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.

[knight66]

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

[Daedalus]

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.