Reblog → Manuscriptone
symphony no. 2 in e minor: That Sounds Clever.:
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5 - Autograph manuscript of the full score (1903)
This page as your ringtone? You’re welcome.
Categories → mahler
Mahler month → The ringtone
Gustav Mahler, writing to his wife Alma in October 1904 after an early rehearsal of his Fifth Symphony, described the Scherzo as ‘this primeval music, this foaming, roaring, raging sea of sound, these dancing stars, these breathtaking, iridescent and flashing breakers.’ Now one more item can be added to Mahler’s list - this cellphone ringtone!
Ringtone Mahler - Symphony no. 5, Scherzo
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, November 14, 2009
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Mahler month → The trauermarsch
‘Measured. Severe. Like a funeral procession.’
Gustav Mahler’s tempo indication for the first movement of his Fifth Symphony.
Mahler - Symphony no. 5, Trauermarsch
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, November 14, 2009
Mahler month → The performer
The final sounding in my series of posts leading up to tomorrow’s WCFSO performance of Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony comes from the man himself. On November 9, 1905 Mahler visited the Welte & Sohne studios in Leipzig and recorded several piano rolls of his own music using the Welte-Mignon system; the rolls from that day are the only audio documentation of Mahler’s approach as a performer. Here is the most substantial and fascinating performance from that session a century ago - the entire first movement of his Fifth Symphony:
Mahler – Symphony no 5, Trauermarsch - mp3
Gustav Mahler, piano from Mahler Plays Mahler
Mahler month → The interpretation
Gustav Mahler’s music is notoriously challenging for performers and listeners alike, and during and after his lifetime his symphonies and song cycles met with coolness and even hostility from both groups. Over the course of the twentieth century a number of committed performers helped to spark a wider embrace of his music among orchestras and audiences.
Leonard Bernstein was Mahler’s most notable advocate, in no small part due to the consonances between their professional lives – Mahler preceded Bernstein as music director of the New York Philharmonic, and both enjoyed great success as conductors but faced critical disparagement of their compositions. Both men also had rich but conflicted encounters with their mutual given religion, Judaism.
Musically, Bernstein’s ability to extend the emotional intensity of the orchestras he conducted made him an intriguing interpreter of the hyper-expressive sound world of Mahler. Here is an excerpt of Bernstein rehearsing the Fifth Symphony with another of Mahler’s orchestras, the Vienna Philharmonic, and searching for that special ‘Mahler Klang.’
Mahler month → The t-shirt
The entire WCFSO viola section showed up to rehearsal the other night wearing these:
Who’s stoked for Saturday night?
Mahler month → The manuscript
One of the people who encouraged my interest in the music and life of Gustav Mahler is Gilbert Kaplan, a prominent businessman who has a singular passion for the composer. In addition to his career as a publisher Kaplan is a serious collector of Mahler-related documents and has published a variety of recordings, books and other material through his Kaplan Foundation, including the marvelous Mahler Album [currently out of print]. I had an opportunity to meet with Kaplan as I was undertaking my scholastic research on Mahler, and he generously gave me this facsimile of the Adagietto from Mahler’s autograph manuscript of the Fifth Symphony. Select the full-screen option above to view the score with audio.
