On Demand
Mad About Music
Sunday, December 07, 2008
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Mahler 100
Celebrating the 100^th anniversary of Mahler’s New York Years – first as Principal Conductor of the MET and later as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic.
“Mad About Music” revisits shows where a work of Mahler was selected by 16 fascinating guests including: Alec Baldwin, Ehud Barak, Mercedes Bass, Barbara Cook, Bruce Crawford, Alan Dershowitz, Thomas Hampson, James Hoge, Mariss Jansons, Norman Lebrecht, Zubin Mehta, Joseph Polisi, Stephen Rubin, James Wolfensohn, Stuart Woods, and Fahreed Zakaria.
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen [excerpt]. Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, Thomas Hampson, Baritone. Deutsche Grammophon 431 682-2.
Symphony No. 1 in D major. Second movement [excerpt]. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Leonard Bernstein. Deutsche Grammophon 427 303-2.
Symphony No. 2 in C minor. Fifth movement [excerpt]. Vienna Philharmonic. Gilbert Kaplan. Wiener Singverein. Latonia Moore, soprano. Nadja Michael, mezzo-soprano. Deutsche Grammophon 474380. Symphony No. 4. Third movement [excerpt]. The Cleveland Orchestra. George Szell. SBK 46535.
Symphony No. 5. First movement [excerpt]. New York Philharmonic. Zubin Mehta. Ultima 28170.
Sympony No. 6 in A minor. First movement [excerpt]. New York Philharmonic. Dimitri Mitropoulos. “The Mahler Broadcasts 1948-1982. Special Editions NYP 9805/06.
Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, "Chorus Mysticus" [excerpt]. Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Sir Georg Solti. Vienna Boys' Choir, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Singverein. Heather Harper, Lucia Popp & Arleen Auger, sopranos; Yvonne Minton & Helen Watts, contraltos; René Kollo, tenor; John Shirley-Quirk, baritone; Martti Talvela, bass. Musical Heritage Society 514500W.
Das Lied von der Erde. “Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde” [excerpt]. Philharmonia Orchestra and New Philharmonia Orchestra. Otto Klemperer. Christa Ludwig. Fritz Wunderlich. EMI 5 66944.
Symphony No. 9 in D major. Third movement [excerpt]. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Bruno Walter. EMI Classics 7 63029 2.
Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp, edition by Remo Mazzetti. Fifth movement [excerpt]. St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Leonard Slatkin. TK CD label. RCA Red Seal B0013AYWEG.
GILBERT KAPLAN: Welcome back to “Mad About Music” as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s New York Years, where in 1908, he took up his position as the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and later served as the music director of the New York Philharmonic. On this occasion we will be revisiting shows of sixteen of our guests who chose a work by Mahler to play on the show.
[Theme Music]
KAPLAN: By 1907, Gustav Mahler had composed eight symphonies and as a conductor he had ruled the opera world as Director of the Vienna Opera – a position he held for ten years. One day though, Heinrich Conried, the head of the Metropolitan Opera in New York showed up and made an offer he couldn’t refuse: An appointment as principal conductor of the Met with three times his annual Vienna salary -- for only three months’ work -- an offer that would enable Mahler to spend nine months composing. Mahler kicked off his American career on New Year’s Day in 1908 with a riveting performance of Wagner’s Tristan. Later that year on December 8th he conducted the first performance in America of his Second Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Tomorrow, also on December 8th, exactly 100 years later, the New York Philharmonic will mount a 100th anniversary performance of Mahler’s Second for which I am honored to serve as the conductor. “Mad About Music’s” way of observing this 100th anniversary, is to survey Mahler’s symphonies and songs as we highlight shows of sixteen of our guests. And we start at the beginning with perhaps Mahler’s first masterpiece, a product of a love affair with a blue-eyed soprano. Mahler had already written poetry for her. Then he set some of it to music, “Songs of a Wayfarer.” The theme, not surprisingly, about losing a blue-eyed girl and the despair that followed. In the second song, the wayfarer sets out through the fields in a happy mood admiring the flowers only to realize that, for him, happiness will never bloom again. Already we encounter two themes that would confront Mahler throughout his life: a love of nature and a search for a meaning in life so often filled with despair. We’ll hear Thomas Hampson sing this. His recording was a selection of James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank when he appeared on the show.
JAMES WOLFENSOHN: I first heard Tommy Hampson sing at Leonard Bernstein's apartment. In fact, I heard him sing a not often played series of songs, Yiddish songs, that were written in the latter part of Lenny's life and I was just overwhelmed by the voice of Tommy Hampson, as I was that night with Lenny Bernstein playing piano and the two of them singing. And I just wanted as a sort of personal reflection to have a recording played on the show that could recognize the remarkable skill that Bernstein had in picking young artists and in supporting them. In, of course, dealing as he did uniquely with the whole issue of song and orchestration of song. I'm not skilled enough to compare Bernstein's treatment of song with Mahler's but I find in the sort of impact that it has on me the remarkable color that you get in the orchestral music. The fact that you have two conversations going on at all times, one with the orchestra and one with the words which you get in Mahler and I think you also got in Bernstein, and yet they come together in such a marvelously compatible and cohesive way.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt of one of Gustav Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” sung by Thomas Hampson with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra led by Leonard Bernstein, a selection of James Wolfensohn, World Bank President when he appeared on the show. “Mad About Music” continues its celebration of the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s New York Years as principal conductor at the Met and then later as music director of the New York Philharmonic. We now turn to his First Symphony, one of the most original and remarkable “firsts” ever. Two of my guests picked the First: Mariss Jansons, one of the most outstanding conductors of Mahler’s music today and Bruce Crawford, one time head of the Metropolitan Opera. In Jansons’ case, it was because of its connection to Leonard Bernstein, legendary for his Mahler interpretations.
MARISS JANSONS: Lennie Bernstein was of course fantastic conductor and fantastic human being. I will never forget when I came to a rehearsal with my orchestra in Musikverein in Vienna. After his rehearsal with the Vienna Philharmonic, I got introduced to him. I was young conductor. He was so friendly, you know, he gave me a big hug and, like you know, my father. I said “Oh my God,” we never met, of course; I was a student in Vienna when he was conducting, but he didn’t know me. We started to talk, such heart, like his, you know, cordially. I perhaps never saw – not one of my colleagues I could compare with Leonard Bernstein. And he was of course a great man, a great personality, great conductor, very subjective. I think his interpretations were really key, Leonard Bernstein, but so was he felt that very sincere! And I think you can hear this in his performance of Mahler’s First Symphony.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the second movement of Mahler’s First Symphony, performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Leonard Bernstein on the podium, a work chosen by the former head of the Metropolitan Opera, Bruce Crawford and conductor Mariss Jansons when they appeared on “Mad About Music.” If Mahler’s First Symphony was remarkably original, his Second Symphony sought no less than to answer in music the most fundamental questions of life and death. The first movement he said takes place at a funeral, where those present are confronted with three burning questions: Why did you live? Why did you struggle? Is life nothing but a huge, frightful joke? Mahler said that anyone into whose life these questions come, must one day answer them. And for Mahler, he finally found his answer to these questions in the last movement. His answer was resurrection. The massive finale paints the picture of the death of the world; the Day of Judgment has arrived. But Mahler’s version of the Day of Judgment is not the traditional one. Here there is no judgment, no punishment. Everyone is forgiven, surrounded by overwhelming love and welcomed to heaven by a saintly chorus singing, “Auferstehn, ja Auferstehn” (“Arise, yes arise”). It was this moving choral passage that was at the core of lawyer Alan Dershowitz’s decision to choose Mahler’s Second when he appeared on the show.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Mahler’s Second Symphony is just phenomenal. It’s all of life. I was recently introduced to a great new recording of Mahler’s Second Symphony by you, and I just absolutely love it. It starts out so differently from other recordings, the slow, deliberate nature of the build-up, it really had me sitting in my seat waiting, waiting for the next beat. So, you have reintroduced me and reintroduced my love to Mahler. And the part that I’ve picked is the last part, because there are so many different moods in Mahler’s Second; but the last part is – if there were ever to be a “Resurrection,” that would be the soundtrack for the “Resurrection”! It is so grand, and it’s almost, God is coming. And it just brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. It almost makes me religious!
[Music]
KAPLAN: The glorious conclusion of Mahler’s Second Symphony. My own recording with the Vienna Philharmonic and soloists Latonia Moore and Nadja Michael and the chorus of the Wiener Singverein, a selection by attorney Alan Dershowitz, when he appeared on “Mad About Music. As we continue to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s New York Years, we now come to Mahler’s Third which none of my guests chose. The Third is Mahler’s nature symphony. Each movement dealt with stages of development beginning with the inanimate, then flowers, animals, people, angels, and finally, love. The last time I looked into the Guinness Book of World Records, the mammoth six-movement Third Symphony was listed as the longest symphony in the world – well over an hour and a half. After the epic Third, Mahler relaxed when it came to his Fourth. The Fourth is shorter; under an hour. The orchestra: normal size; only the traditional four movements. The mood is generally sunlit and light. Mahler even dispenses with all the trombones and the tuba. There is some evidence in fact that Mahler considered it his best. Three of my guests picked the Fourth Symphony. Actor Alec Baldwin said it was probably his favorite piece of classical music. For singer Thomas Hampson it was the special appeal of the final movement – a song called “The Heavenly Life” describing a child’s view of heaven. But James Hoge, Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine chose the slow movement which Mahler once described as depicting his mother “smiling through tears”.
JAMES HOGE: There are a number of slow movements, particularly in Mahler, that touch me very deeply. This one I think is the most evocative one of all. It just, it kind of stays with you as it slowly peter’s out. It’s beautiful, it is mournful, it is sad, but it’s not the end. He takes you through the valley, and of course, when you leave the movement you go on and by the time you are through with the symphony he’s got you back on the high mountain and it’s that combination I guess. But I just find Mahler’s slow movements to be probably some of the best work that he did and this one is the best of them all.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the dreamy third movement from Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. The Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of George Szell, a selection of the Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, James Hoge, as well as Alec Baldwin and Thomas Hampson when they appeared on “Mad About Music”. After the Fourth Symphony, Mahler’s music embarked on a new direction which we’ll explore when we return.
[Station break]
KAPLAN: This is Gilbert Kaplan and on this special edition of “Mad About Music”, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s New York Years as principal conductor at the Met and later as music director of the New York Philharmonic. We are revisiting sixteen shows where guests selected one of his works. And we left off with the dreamy slow movement from the Fourth Symphony. With the Fifth, Mahler breaks new ground. As one commentator put it, Mahler acknowledges the power of doubt, alienation and despair to a degree that few, if any artists, have previously done. With the Fifth Symphony he embarks on three purely orchestral works; no solo singers; no choruses. The warm harmonies of the earlier works were replaced by a hard edge and a pronounced polyphony – many musical themes playing at once. Three of my guests selected the Fifth to play on the show. Mercedes Bass, Vice Chairman of both the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, became a true Mahlerian after being immersed in a seven day festival. The Fifth has become her favorite. For cabaret singer Barbara Cook it was hearing a recording of the Fifth Symphony by the young Venezuelan conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. When the conductor Zubin Mehta appeared on the show, he responded to my request that he play one recording of him conducting by selecting his leading the New York Philharmonic in Mahler’s Fifth.
ZUBIN MEHTA: I’m rather proud of the recording of the Mahler Fifth with the New York Philharmonic. We did it almost as a performance, which is wonderful, because it’s not – you know, we never have enough time, especially with American recording conditions to record piecemeal. Which is, in a way, from the performance point of view, wonderful. And we really recorded each movement through and made corrections, etc., So I think I would pick the first movement of the Mahler Fifth, with its great solo playing in it. Phil Smith was an addition of mine to the New York Philharmonic; and even today, when I hear him playing, I’m very proud of my selection. And he’s the one who starts the symphony off.
[Music]
KAPLAN: The opening of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and on the podium, my guest on “Mad About Music”, conductor Zubin Mehta. After the Fifth, Mahler surprised the music world with his Sixth. He called it “The Tragic” and said it contained “the sum of all the suffering I have been compelled to endure at the hands of life.” It is the only symphony to end in utter despair and the only one to end in a minor key. All others conclude in joy, triumph, serenity, or at least calm resignation; here it is naked death that triumphs. For Stephen Rubin, President of the Doubleday Publishing Group, one conductor stands out for his masterly interpretation of the Sixth Symphony.
STEPHEN RUBIN: Probably one of my favorite conductors, because as opposed to let’s say someone like Toscanini or Furtwängler, to use opposite poles, you almost pretty much knew what you were going to get when they conducted a performance. With Mitropoulos, you never know. And Mitropoulos’ range was amazing. I mean, he did Mahler, he did Verdi. He did Puccini, he did Strauss. He was all over the place. And when he was really in a piece, I think the kind of intensity that he brought to it was just phenomenal. And the choice that I’ve chosen is a live performance of the Mahler Sixth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic from 1955. That is for me the best performance of this symphony I’ve ever heard. I’ve chosen the first movement because it’s an impassioned sort of march theme, and I read somewhere that Mahler wrote that the players should play as though furious with anger and I think that Mitropoulos brings that intensity in a way that no one else does for me.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the opening movement of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony performed by the New York Philharmonic with Dimitri Mitropoulos on the podium. A live 1955 performance, regarded as the finest recorded performance of the work by the President of the Doubleday Publishing Group, Stephen Rubin, when he appeared on “Mad About Music”. It was Mitropoulos by the way who brought Mahler’s Sixth to America, leading the U.S. premiere with the New York Philharmonic in 1947. Which brings us to Mahler’s Seventh Symphony which none of my guests selected. The Seventh Symphony is Mahler’s Cinderella: least known; least performed -- well, except for the Eighth Symphony which is very expensive. Many musicologists regard it as his most modern work, especially in terms of harmony, dissonance, and sudden key changes. The Seventh at one time was called the “Song of the Night”. Most of the music describes the night’s diverse moods: romantic, spooky, sinister, mysterious, beautiful. And mysterious and beautiful are words that come to mind as we continue our 100th anniversary celebration of Mahler’s New York Years, and we turn to his Eighth Symphony -- which is surely his most monumental work. Composed in an inspirational burst of only eight weeks, in two parts linking an ancient Catholic hymn with a German literary masterpiece written 1,000 years later: Goethe's "Faust". It was nicknamed “Symphony of 1,000” – certainly not by Mahler, by the way. But there were 1,000 performers at the premiere: a huge orchestra with an organ, eight soloists, and three choirs. Two of my guests picked the Eighth: President of Juilliard, Joseph Polisi and former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The first time Polisi, an accomplished bassoonist performed the Eighth, the music simply took his breath away. JOSEPH POLISI: When I came upon the Eighth Symphony, I was overwhelmed. I just couldn’t believe that so much sound and so much emotion could be packed into even a symphony orchestra with chorus and soloists. So it’s always been my ultimate musical experience in many, many ways. I’ve always wanted to have the Juilliard Orchestra perform it sometime, and we will. Sometime in the near future.
KAPLAN: If Juilliard’s president, Joseph Polisi, discovered Mahler’s Eighth early in life, it took much longer before former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak got swept away by it.
EHUD BARAK: No, until the age of 40, I could hardly listen to Mahler. I heard it incidentally, and I just couldn't find a contact with it. But it happened to me around the age of 40 that I heard the Fourth Symphony and fell in love with it and then someone brought to me the Fifth Symphony. Now the Eighth Symphony was the last one that I found and I was astonished. I could not stop listening. It's a kind of culmination of, of beauty and depth. Music is a form of art that penetrates you directly in a way that could not be reached by either sculpture or painting, in my feeling, or even within a classical novel. And I fell in love with the Eighth Symphony to an extent that at a certain point I said that one of my projects as a Prime Minister would be to support – you know it costs a lot of money to put it on stage, the Eighth Symphony – that I will find some resources from the government to help the Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Mahler's Eighth. But unfortunately my term as the Prime Minister was cut by the intensity of an event, the Camp David and the intifada, and I couldn't complete it. So maybe the next time, if I ever come back to politics, a new reason to go there would be to be able to live up to my old promise to bring the Eighth Symphony of Mahler to the stage. I choose the last, the very last five minutes – the "Chorus Mysticus" – since I still to this moment remember the shiver through my spine when I listened to it for the first time. Feminine souls, heavenly souls accompanying the soul of Faust to heaven.
[Music]
KAPLAN: The "Chorus Mysticus" from Mahler's Eighth Symphony, often called "Symphony of a Thousand". The Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Georg Solti, a work selected by both Juilliard President Joseph Polisi and the former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak when they appeared on “Mad About Music”. After his Eighth Symphony, Mahler was afraid to label the next one his Ninth and we’ll explore why as soon as we return.
KAPLAN: This is Gilbert Kaplan and on this special edition of “Mad About Music”, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s New York Years as principal conductor at the Met and later music director of the New York Philharmonic. We are revisiting sixteen shows where guests selected one of his works. We just heard the glorious “Chorus Mysticus” from Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Now what should have come next, of course, was a Ninth Symphony, but Mahler was afraid of that number. He was aware of the jinx of number nine for Beethoven, Schubert, and Bruckner, each of whom died either following or working on his ninth symphony. So in an attempt to trick fate it is said, he described his next work not as a symphony, but as a "song-symphony": Das Lied von der Erde, “The Song of the Earth”, and he did not assign it a number. It’s based on a book of Chinese Poetry called “The Chinese Flute”. Das Lied contemplates the onset of death. Mahler said it was the most personal music he had yet written. It was the emotional power of the opening song called “The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow” – what a title-- that made its lasting impression on my guest Fahreed Zakaria, the Editor of the International Edition of Newsweek.
FAHREED ZAKARIA: What draws me to this music, this is Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, is the way he mingles music and sound. I remember once reading something about Wagner, it was a wonderful book called Aspects of Wagner, by Brian McGee, in which he talked about Wagner’s theory of opera, and that the key to true greatness in music was the mingling of voice and orchestra. Well, I don’t know if Wagner was right about that, but certainly what Mahler was able to do with this beautiful song cycle was to meld voice and instrument in a kind of seamless way. There are many things that I like about it, I think it is fascinating that he chose these poems from some Tang Dynasty poet that he liked, and weaved them into a song cycle. It’s sort of multiculturalism at work before you even knew it. I think the emotional power of the music is the overwhelming part. This is Mahler writing at, I think, probably one of the saddest years of his life. It brims of sorrow, particularly the first song. And the tenor is fantastic, Fritz Wunderlich, who is a great lyric tenor, who tragically died I think about the same age as Mozart, 35, leaving many to wonder what his career would have been like, had he been around. [Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from “The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow” from Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, “The Song of the Earth”, sung by Fritz Wunderlich with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Otto Klemperer, a work that Mahler described as perhaps the most personal music he had ever written. This was a selection of Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International when he appeared on “Mad About Music”. After “The Song of the Earth”, Mahler went to work on his Ninth Symphony thinking he had beaten the numbering jinx. The Ninth is the centerpiece of Mahler’s farewell trilogy. Made up of “The Song of the Earth”, the Ninth, and the Tenth Symphony -- which he never would finish. “Farewell” because each encompasses this concept. Mahler authorities and Mahler himself have suggested a multitude of farewells that this symphony is about: farewell to youth; the symphonic tradition; the 19th century; tonality; and to life itself. This is powerful music and one performance of it will always be embedded in the memory of bestselling author Stuart Woods – and once again the focus is on Leonard Bernstein.
STUART WOODS: One of the great musical experiences of my life was hearing Leonard Bernstein conduct Mahler’s Ninth at Lincoln Center. That was overwhelming. When the baton came down at the end, I heard something I have never heard in the theater before. There was a great, huge shout, as one man from the audience, and everybody was on their feet, clapping, weeping, shouting, and I’ve never had quite such an overwhelming experience as that evening. Well, you would have thought that Bernstein was about to die when he finished it. He was dripping with sweat, he was exhausted, his arms were hanging limp at his sides, and he looked positively relieved, as if he had just gotten into heaven.
KAPLAN: The highly charged emotional atmosphere in that concert hall then is surely understandable. Most of Mahler’s symphonies focus on the idea of death. But in the Ninth, the real thing arrives. Death finishes its work in the last movement, but on the way, in the third movement, Mahler provides a surrealist detour he called “Rondo-burlesque”. I asked Alec Baldwin whether this duality in the music might match his own personality and account for his attraction to the Ninth Symphony: he didn’t quite see it that way as you’ll see in this interchange between us.
KAPLAN: It is very profound music, and continuing with my attempt to connect your musical selections with your personality, this symphony combines in an almost surreal way, two opposing personalities. The third movement, which Mahler called the "Rondo-burlesque", is really a demonic whirlwind charging ahead, almost out of control. Then, it turns into perhaps the most reflective, probing, sensuous music Mahler ever composed. Do you see anything of yourself in that description?
ALEC BALDWIN: You missed your calling! You should be a forensic psychiatrist with the police department. Well, I'm going to cop out here and say, these analyses of yours might apply maybe more to the characters I play than to me myself. I mean, I might have an appreciation of....
KAPLAN: You're a mild-mannered reporter of The Daily Planet.
BALDWIN: of a quaint metropolitan newspaper, who fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.
KAPLAN: Well, tell me about your feelings about this Ninth.
BALDWIN: Well, the Ninth was probably, I would say, like many people, when you first hear this piece, it's just so searing, and so powerful. This was the first Mahler piece I think I heard when I was in Los Angeles, during that time I was listening to classical music on the radio incessantly, and it just had this incredible effect on me. And it's one of the few symphonies, actually, where the whole piece, I could sit and listen to the whole piece in one run. Sometimes I'll take some certain symphonies and listen to movements, I don't really feel the need to listen to the whole piece in one meal. And this is one where you just almost have to play this whole thing.
KAPLAN: Actor Alec Baldwin on the attraction of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. My third guest to select the Ninth was the author and music journalist Norman Lebrecht. For him that “Rondo-burlesque” was no joking matter.
NORMAN LEBRECHT: We’re back to Mahler, and we’re back to Bruno Walter, and it’s January, 1938, and it’s Vienna. And the reason I have chosen this is to show the way that a musical performance can capture the spirit of the time, of how, when it is captured on record, it can freeze that moment in time for all time to come. It’s 1938; the Nazi menace is creeping over Europe, and it is now menacing the Austrian Republic. Evil is at the gates; and Bruno Walter, who was Mahler’s protégé, has returned to Vienna to conduct his last symphony, a work that he had himself given the premiere of, after Mahler’s death, twenty-five seasons before. For that performance in the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, the whole of the Austrian cabinet, led by Chancellor Dollfuss, turned out. The composer’s widow, Alma, was in the audience. So was his daughter, Anna. The whole of the Austrian intelligentsia were there. It was one of those occasions where everybody claims to have been there. And when you listen to this performance, you hear fate and history knocking at the door. The people who are sitting there know that this may be the last performance of Mahler that they are ever going to hear, because it it’s already been banned in Germany, and if Nazism arrives in Austria, it’s going to be banned and apparently forever. This was, remember, the Thousand-Year Reich. No more Mahler for the next millennium! And Walter, with the Vienna Philharmonic, with Mahler’s brother-in-law, Arnold Rosé, still sitting in the concertmaster’s chair, he’s in his sixtieth year in that chair, conducts a performance of phenomenal intensity, much faster than people here in America will remember him doing it, and much wilder in the “Rondo-burlesque”. Here, one hears the Devil, as Mahler encountered him, one hears the Devil, about to take hold of our lives, to take hold of civilization, to take hold of the whole world. This is admonitory music; it’s music that issues a great warning to history, “don’t let this happen!” And it’s music that captures a moment in time, and that exists on record. This is what recording has done for us. It has captured human history.
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the “Rondo-burlesque” movement of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, a live 1938 performance by the Vienna Philharmonic led by Bruno Walter, music selected by Stuart Woods, Alec Baldwin and Norman Lebrecht when they appeared on “Mad About Music”. And finally we come to Mahler’s Tenth Symphony which Mahler never completed. He was well on his way when he died on May 18, 1911. But many musicologists have since tried to interpret his sketches and have produced full symphonies. Not Mahler, of course, but his sketches were such that all the editors produced rather similar results. None of my guests chose the Tenth but to round out our survey today, I’ll play the final moments of the symphony. And we arrive here after five movements often filled with highly dissonant music, including an explosive 9-note chord until we land on what some regard as Mahler’s most beautifully composed passage. As biographer Michael Kennedy put it: “A great song of life and love, the most fervent and intense in any Mahler symphony.” This was a love song for Mahler’s wife Alma to whom he addressed the heart rending words he wrote in the score near the end: "To live for you; to die for you". And finally, “Almschi”, his nickname for Alma.
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the concluding moments of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony in the edition by Remo Mazzetti and performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin. The final notes Mahler ever wrote. And so it resolves, not in death as in the Ninth Symphony, but in love. And now I turn to Mahler scholar Donald Mitchell who best expressed this idea. Here’s what he said:
“The Tenth in its own terms proposes its own new reality. If the Ninth Symphony showed one way of creating meaning out of the duality of life and death, the Tenth with its confident affirmation of love shows another way: the work of art itself would prove that death after all need not have the last word. How ironic that death should have taken Mahler before he had completed the Tenth – which makes known to the world not Mahler’s last defeat, but his last victory.” Or as John Donne, author of “Death, Be Not Proud” might have put it: “At the end of the Tenth, it is Death who dies.”
And so we conclude our 100th anniversary celebration of Mahler’s New York Years on a theme of love. This is Gilbert Kaplan for “Mad About Music.”
Symphony No. 1 in D major. Second movement [excerpt]. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Leonard Bernstein. Deutsche Grammophon 427 303-2.
Symphony No. 2 in C minor. Fifth movement [excerpt]. Vienna Philharmonic. Gilbert Kaplan. Wiener Singverein. Latonia Moore, soprano. Nadja Michael, mezzo-soprano. Deutsche Grammophon 474380. Symphony No. 4. Third movement [excerpt]. The Cleveland Orchestra. George Szell. SBK 46535.
Symphony No. 5. First movement [excerpt]. New York Philharmonic. Zubin Mehta. Ultima 28170.
Sympony No. 6 in A minor. First movement [excerpt]. New York Philharmonic. Dimitri Mitropoulos. “The Mahler Broadcasts 1948-1982. Special Editions NYP 9805/06.
Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, "Chorus Mysticus" [excerpt]. Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Sir Georg Solti. Vienna Boys' Choir, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Vienna Singverein. Heather Harper, Lucia Popp & Arleen Auger, sopranos; Yvonne Minton & Helen Watts, contraltos; René Kollo, tenor; John Shirley-Quirk, baritone; Martti Talvela, bass. Musical Heritage Society 514500W.
Das Lied von der Erde. “Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde” [excerpt]. Philharmonia Orchestra and New Philharmonia Orchestra. Otto Klemperer. Christa Ludwig. Fritz Wunderlich. EMI 5 66944.
Symphony No. 9 in D major. Third movement [excerpt]. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Bruno Walter. EMI Classics 7 63029 2.
Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp, edition by Remo Mazzetti. Fifth movement [excerpt]. St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Leonard Slatkin. TK CD label. RCA Red Seal B0013AYWEG.
GILBERT KAPLAN: Welcome back to “Mad About Music” as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s New York Years, where in 1908, he took up his position as the principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and later served as the music director of the New York Philharmonic. On this occasion we will be revisiting shows of sixteen of our guests who chose a work by Mahler to play on the show.
[Theme Music]
KAPLAN: By 1907, Gustav Mahler had composed eight symphonies and as a conductor he had ruled the opera world as Director of the Vienna Opera – a position he held for ten years. One day though, Heinrich Conried, the head of the Metropolitan Opera in New York showed up and made an offer he couldn’t refuse: An appointment as principal conductor of the Met with three times his annual Vienna salary -- for only three months’ work -- an offer that would enable Mahler to spend nine months composing. Mahler kicked off his American career on New Year’s Day in 1908 with a riveting performance of Wagner’s Tristan. Later that year on December 8th he conducted the first performance in America of his Second Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Tomorrow, also on December 8th, exactly 100 years later, the New York Philharmonic will mount a 100th anniversary performance of Mahler’s Second for which I am honored to serve as the conductor. “Mad About Music’s” way of observing this 100th anniversary, is to survey Mahler’s symphonies and songs as we highlight shows of sixteen of our guests. And we start at the beginning with perhaps Mahler’s first masterpiece, a product of a love affair with a blue-eyed soprano. Mahler had already written poetry for her. Then he set some of it to music, “Songs of a Wayfarer.” The theme, not surprisingly, about losing a blue-eyed girl and the despair that followed. In the second song, the wayfarer sets out through the fields in a happy mood admiring the flowers only to realize that, for him, happiness will never bloom again. Already we encounter two themes that would confront Mahler throughout his life: a love of nature and a search for a meaning in life so often filled with despair. We’ll hear Thomas Hampson sing this. His recording was a selection of James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank when he appeared on the show.
JAMES WOLFENSOHN: I first heard Tommy Hampson sing at Leonard Bernstein's apartment. In fact, I heard him sing a not often played series of songs, Yiddish songs, that were written in the latter part of Lenny's life and I was just overwhelmed by the voice of Tommy Hampson, as I was that night with Lenny Bernstein playing piano and the two of them singing. And I just wanted as a sort of personal reflection to have a recording played on the show that could recognize the remarkable skill that Bernstein had in picking young artists and in supporting them. In, of course, dealing as he did uniquely with the whole issue of song and orchestration of song. I'm not skilled enough to compare Bernstein's treatment of song with Mahler's but I find in the sort of impact that it has on me the remarkable color that you get in the orchestral music. The fact that you have two conversations going on at all times, one with the orchestra and one with the words which you get in Mahler and I think you also got in Bernstein, and yet they come together in such a marvelously compatible and cohesive way.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt of one of Gustav Mahler’s “Songs of a Wayfarer” sung by Thomas Hampson with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra led by Leonard Bernstein, a selection of James Wolfensohn, World Bank President when he appeared on the show. “Mad About Music” continues its celebration of the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s New York Years as principal conductor at the Met and then later as music director of the New York Philharmonic. We now turn to his First Symphony, one of the most original and remarkable “firsts” ever. Two of my guests picked the First: Mariss Jansons, one of the most outstanding conductors of Mahler’s music today and Bruce Crawford, one time head of the Metropolitan Opera. In Jansons’ case, it was because of its connection to Leonard Bernstein, legendary for his Mahler interpretations.
MARISS JANSONS: Lennie Bernstein was of course fantastic conductor and fantastic human being. I will never forget when I came to a rehearsal with my orchestra in Musikverein in Vienna. After his rehearsal with the Vienna Philharmonic, I got introduced to him. I was young conductor. He was so friendly, you know, he gave me a big hug and, like you know, my father. I said “Oh my God,” we never met, of course; I was a student in Vienna when he was conducting, but he didn’t know me. We started to talk, such heart, like his, you know, cordially. I perhaps never saw – not one of my colleagues I could compare with Leonard Bernstein. And he was of course a great man, a great personality, great conductor, very subjective. I think his interpretations were really key, Leonard Bernstein, but so was he felt that very sincere! And I think you can hear this in his performance of Mahler’s First Symphony.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the second movement of Mahler’s First Symphony, performed by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Leonard Bernstein on the podium, a work chosen by the former head of the Metropolitan Opera, Bruce Crawford and conductor Mariss Jansons when they appeared on “Mad About Music.” If Mahler’s First Symphony was remarkably original, his Second Symphony sought no less than to answer in music the most fundamental questions of life and death. The first movement he said takes place at a funeral, where those present are confronted with three burning questions: Why did you live? Why did you struggle? Is life nothing but a huge, frightful joke? Mahler said that anyone into whose life these questions come, must one day answer them. And for Mahler, he finally found his answer to these questions in the last movement. His answer was resurrection. The massive finale paints the picture of the death of the world; the Day of Judgment has arrived. But Mahler’s version of the Day of Judgment is not the traditional one. Here there is no judgment, no punishment. Everyone is forgiven, surrounded by overwhelming love and welcomed to heaven by a saintly chorus singing, “Auferstehn, ja Auferstehn” (“Arise, yes arise”). It was this moving choral passage that was at the core of lawyer Alan Dershowitz’s decision to choose Mahler’s Second when he appeared on the show.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ: Mahler’s Second Symphony is just phenomenal. It’s all of life. I was recently introduced to a great new recording of Mahler’s Second Symphony by you, and I just absolutely love it. It starts out so differently from other recordings, the slow, deliberate nature of the build-up, it really had me sitting in my seat waiting, waiting for the next beat. So, you have reintroduced me and reintroduced my love to Mahler. And the part that I’ve picked is the last part, because there are so many different moods in Mahler’s Second; but the last part is – if there were ever to be a “Resurrection,” that would be the soundtrack for the “Resurrection”! It is so grand, and it’s almost, God is coming. And it just brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. It almost makes me religious!
[Music]
KAPLAN: The glorious conclusion of Mahler’s Second Symphony. My own recording with the Vienna Philharmonic and soloists Latonia Moore and Nadja Michael and the chorus of the Wiener Singverein, a selection by attorney Alan Dershowitz, when he appeared on “Mad About Music. As we continue to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s New York Years, we now come to Mahler’s Third which none of my guests chose. The Third is Mahler’s nature symphony. Each movement dealt with stages of development beginning with the inanimate, then flowers, animals, people, angels, and finally, love. The last time I looked into the Guinness Book of World Records, the mammoth six-movement Third Symphony was listed as the longest symphony in the world – well over an hour and a half. After the epic Third, Mahler relaxed when it came to his Fourth. The Fourth is shorter; under an hour. The orchestra: normal size; only the traditional four movements. The mood is generally sunlit and light. Mahler even dispenses with all the trombones and the tuba. There is some evidence in fact that Mahler considered it his best. Three of my guests picked the Fourth Symphony. Actor Alec Baldwin said it was probably his favorite piece of classical music. For singer Thomas Hampson it was the special appeal of the final movement – a song called “The Heavenly Life” describing a child’s view of heaven. But James Hoge, Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine chose the slow movement which Mahler once described as depicting his mother “smiling through tears”.
JAMES HOGE: There are a number of slow movements, particularly in Mahler, that touch me very deeply. This one I think is the most evocative one of all. It just, it kind of stays with you as it slowly peter’s out. It’s beautiful, it is mournful, it is sad, but it’s not the end. He takes you through the valley, and of course, when you leave the movement you go on and by the time you are through with the symphony he’s got you back on the high mountain and it’s that combination I guess. But I just find Mahler’s slow movements to be probably some of the best work that he did and this one is the best of them all.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the dreamy third movement from Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. The Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of George Szell, a selection of the Editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, James Hoge, as well as Alec Baldwin and Thomas Hampson when they appeared on “Mad About Music”. After the Fourth Symphony, Mahler’s music embarked on a new direction which we’ll explore when we return.
[Station break]
KAPLAN: This is Gilbert Kaplan and on this special edition of “Mad About Music”, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s New York Years as principal conductor at the Met and later as music director of the New York Philharmonic. We are revisiting sixteen shows where guests selected one of his works. And we left off with the dreamy slow movement from the Fourth Symphony. With the Fifth, Mahler breaks new ground. As one commentator put it, Mahler acknowledges the power of doubt, alienation and despair to a degree that few, if any artists, have previously done. With the Fifth Symphony he embarks on three purely orchestral works; no solo singers; no choruses. The warm harmonies of the earlier works were replaced by a hard edge and a pronounced polyphony – many musical themes playing at once. Three of my guests selected the Fifth to play on the show. Mercedes Bass, Vice Chairman of both the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, became a true Mahlerian after being immersed in a seven day festival. The Fifth has become her favorite. For cabaret singer Barbara Cook it was hearing a recording of the Fifth Symphony by the young Venezuelan conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. When the conductor Zubin Mehta appeared on the show, he responded to my request that he play one recording of him conducting by selecting his leading the New York Philharmonic in Mahler’s Fifth.
ZUBIN MEHTA: I’m rather proud of the recording of the Mahler Fifth with the New York Philharmonic. We did it almost as a performance, which is wonderful, because it’s not – you know, we never have enough time, especially with American recording conditions to record piecemeal. Which is, in a way, from the performance point of view, wonderful. And we really recorded each movement through and made corrections, etc., So I think I would pick the first movement of the Mahler Fifth, with its great solo playing in it. Phil Smith was an addition of mine to the New York Philharmonic; and even today, when I hear him playing, I’m very proud of my selection. And he’s the one who starts the symphony off.
[Music]
KAPLAN: The opening of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and on the podium, my guest on “Mad About Music”, conductor Zubin Mehta. After the Fifth, Mahler surprised the music world with his Sixth. He called it “The Tragic” and said it contained “the sum of all the suffering I have been compelled to endure at the hands of life.” It is the only symphony to end in utter despair and the only one to end in a minor key. All others conclude in joy, triumph, serenity, or at least calm resignation; here it is naked death that triumphs. For Stephen Rubin, President of the Doubleday Publishing Group, one conductor stands out for his masterly interpretation of the Sixth Symphony.
STEPHEN RUBIN: Probably one of my favorite conductors, because as opposed to let’s say someone like Toscanini or Furtwängler, to use opposite poles, you almost pretty much knew what you were going to get when they conducted a performance. With Mitropoulos, you never know. And Mitropoulos’ range was amazing. I mean, he did Mahler, he did Verdi. He did Puccini, he did Strauss. He was all over the place. And when he was really in a piece, I think the kind of intensity that he brought to it was just phenomenal. And the choice that I’ve chosen is a live performance of the Mahler Sixth Symphony with the New York Philharmonic from 1955. That is for me the best performance of this symphony I’ve ever heard. I’ve chosen the first movement because it’s an impassioned sort of march theme, and I read somewhere that Mahler wrote that the players should play as though furious with anger and I think that Mitropoulos brings that intensity in a way that no one else does for me.
[Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the opening movement of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony performed by the New York Philharmonic with Dimitri Mitropoulos on the podium. A live 1955 performance, regarded as the finest recorded performance of the work by the President of the Doubleday Publishing Group, Stephen Rubin, when he appeared on “Mad About Music”. It was Mitropoulos by the way who brought Mahler’s Sixth to America, leading the U.S. premiere with the New York Philharmonic in 1947. Which brings us to Mahler’s Seventh Symphony which none of my guests selected. The Seventh Symphony is Mahler’s Cinderella: least known; least performed -- well, except for the Eighth Symphony which is very expensive. Many musicologists regard it as his most modern work, especially in terms of harmony, dissonance, and sudden key changes. The Seventh at one time was called the “Song of the Night”. Most of the music describes the night’s diverse moods: romantic, spooky, sinister, mysterious, beautiful. And mysterious and beautiful are words that come to mind as we continue our 100th anniversary celebration of Mahler’s New York Years, and we turn to his Eighth Symphony -- which is surely his most monumental work. Composed in an inspirational burst of only eight weeks, in two parts linking an ancient Catholic hymn with a German literary masterpiece written 1,000 years later: Goethe's "Faust". It was nicknamed “Symphony of 1,000” – certainly not by Mahler, by the way. But there were 1,000 performers at the premiere: a huge orchestra with an organ, eight soloists, and three choirs. Two of my guests picked the Eighth: President of Juilliard, Joseph Polisi and former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The first time Polisi, an accomplished bassoonist performed the Eighth, the music simply took his breath away. JOSEPH POLISI: When I came upon the Eighth Symphony, I was overwhelmed. I just couldn’t believe that so much sound and so much emotion could be packed into even a symphony orchestra with chorus and soloists. So it’s always been my ultimate musical experience in many, many ways. I’ve always wanted to have the Juilliard Orchestra perform it sometime, and we will. Sometime in the near future.
KAPLAN: If Juilliard’s president, Joseph Polisi, discovered Mahler’s Eighth early in life, it took much longer before former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak got swept away by it.
EHUD BARAK: No, until the age of 40, I could hardly listen to Mahler. I heard it incidentally, and I just couldn't find a contact with it. But it happened to me around the age of 40 that I heard the Fourth Symphony and fell in love with it and then someone brought to me the Fifth Symphony. Now the Eighth Symphony was the last one that I found and I was astonished. I could not stop listening. It's a kind of culmination of, of beauty and depth. Music is a form of art that penetrates you directly in a way that could not be reached by either sculpture or painting, in my feeling, or even within a classical novel. And I fell in love with the Eighth Symphony to an extent that at a certain point I said that one of my projects as a Prime Minister would be to support – you know it costs a lot of money to put it on stage, the Eighth Symphony – that I will find some resources from the government to help the Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Mahler's Eighth. But unfortunately my term as the Prime Minister was cut by the intensity of an event, the Camp David and the intifada, and I couldn't complete it. So maybe the next time, if I ever come back to politics, a new reason to go there would be to be able to live up to my old promise to bring the Eighth Symphony of Mahler to the stage. I choose the last, the very last five minutes – the "Chorus Mysticus" – since I still to this moment remember the shiver through my spine when I listened to it for the first time. Feminine souls, heavenly souls accompanying the soul of Faust to heaven.
[Music]
KAPLAN: The "Chorus Mysticus" from Mahler's Eighth Symphony, often called "Symphony of a Thousand". The Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Georg Solti, a work selected by both Juilliard President Joseph Polisi and the former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak when they appeared on “Mad About Music”. After his Eighth Symphony, Mahler was afraid to label the next one his Ninth and we’ll explore why as soon as we return.
KAPLAN: This is Gilbert Kaplan and on this special edition of “Mad About Music”, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s New York Years as principal conductor at the Met and later music director of the New York Philharmonic. We are revisiting sixteen shows where guests selected one of his works. We just heard the glorious “Chorus Mysticus” from Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Now what should have come next, of course, was a Ninth Symphony, but Mahler was afraid of that number. He was aware of the jinx of number nine for Beethoven, Schubert, and Bruckner, each of whom died either following or working on his ninth symphony. So in an attempt to trick fate it is said, he described his next work not as a symphony, but as a "song-symphony": Das Lied von der Erde, “The Song of the Earth”, and he did not assign it a number. It’s based on a book of Chinese Poetry called “The Chinese Flute”. Das Lied contemplates the onset of death. Mahler said it was the most personal music he had yet written. It was the emotional power of the opening song called “The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow” – what a title-- that made its lasting impression on my guest Fahreed Zakaria, the Editor of the International Edition of Newsweek.
FAHREED ZAKARIA: What draws me to this music, this is Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, is the way he mingles music and sound. I remember once reading something about Wagner, it was a wonderful book called Aspects of Wagner, by Brian McGee, in which he talked about Wagner’s theory of opera, and that the key to true greatness in music was the mingling of voice and orchestra. Well, I don’t know if Wagner was right about that, but certainly what Mahler was able to do with this beautiful song cycle was to meld voice and instrument in a kind of seamless way. There are many things that I like about it, I think it is fascinating that he chose these poems from some Tang Dynasty poet that he liked, and weaved them into a song cycle. It’s sort of multiculturalism at work before you even knew it. I think the emotional power of the music is the overwhelming part. This is Mahler writing at, I think, probably one of the saddest years of his life. It brims of sorrow, particularly the first song. And the tenor is fantastic, Fritz Wunderlich, who is a great lyric tenor, who tragically died I think about the same age as Mozart, 35, leaving many to wonder what his career would have been like, had he been around. [Music]
KAPLAN: An excerpt from “The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow” from Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, “The Song of the Earth”, sung by Fritz Wunderlich with the Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Otto Klemperer, a work that Mahler described as perhaps the most personal music he had ever written. This was a selection of Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International when he appeared on “Mad About Music”. After “The Song of the Earth”, Mahler went to work on his Ninth Symphony thinking he had beaten the numbering jinx. The Ninth is the centerpiece of Mahler’s farewell trilogy. Made up of “The Song of the Earth”, the Ninth, and the Tenth Symphony -- which he never would finish. “Farewell” because each encompasses this concept. Mahler authorities and Mahler himself have suggested a multitude of farewells that this symphony is about: farewell to youth; the symphonic tradition; the 19th century; tonality; and to life itself. This is powerful music and one performance of it will always be embedded in the memory of bestselling author Stuart Woods – and once again the focus is on Leonard Bernstein.
STUART WOODS: One of the great musical experiences of my life was hearing Leonard Bernstein conduct Mahler’s Ninth at Lincoln Center. That was overwhelming. When the baton came down at the end, I heard something I have never heard in the theater before. There was a great, huge shout, as one man from the audience, and everybody was on their feet, clapping, weeping, shouting, and I’ve never had quite such an overwhelming experience as that evening. Well, you would have thought that Bernstein was about to die when he finished it. He was dripping with sweat, he was exhausted, his arms were hanging limp at his sides, and he looked positively relieved, as if he had just gotten into heaven.
KAPLAN: The highly charged emotional atmosphere in that concert hall then is surely understandable. Most of Mahler’s symphonies focus on the idea of death. But in the Ninth, the real thing arrives. Death finishes its work in the last movement, but on the way, in the third movement, Mahler provides a surrealist detour he called “Rondo-burlesque”. I asked Alec Baldwin whether this duality in the music might match his own personality and account for his attraction to the Ninth Symphony: he didn’t quite see it that way as you’ll see in this interchange between us.
KAPLAN: It is very profound music, and continuing with my attempt to connect your musical selections with your personality, this symphony combines in an almost surreal way, two opposing personalities. The third movement, which Mahler called the "Rondo-burlesque", is really a demonic whirlwind charging ahead, almost out of control. Then, it turns into perhaps the most reflective, probing, sensuous music Mahler ever composed. Do you see anything of yourself in that description?
ALEC BALDWIN: You missed your calling! You should be a forensic psychiatrist with the police department. Well, I'm going to cop out here and say, these analyses of yours might apply maybe more to the characters I play than to me myself. I mean, I might have an appreciation of....
KAPLAN: You're a mild-mannered reporter of The Daily Planet.
BALDWIN: of a quaint metropolitan newspaper, who fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.
KAPLAN: Well, tell me about your feelings about this Ninth.
BALDWIN: Well, the Ninth was probably, I would say, like many people, when you first hear this piece, it's just so searing, and so powerful. This was the first Mahler piece I think I heard when I was in Los Angeles, during that time I was listening to classical music on the radio incessantly, and it just had this incredible effect on me. And it's one of the few symphonies, actually, where the whole piece, I could sit and listen to the whole piece in one run. Sometimes I'll take some certain symphonies and listen to movements, I don't really feel the need to listen to the whole piece in one meal. And this is one where you just almost have to play this whole thing.
KAPLAN: Actor Alec Baldwin on the attraction of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. My third guest to select the Ninth was the author and music journalist Norman Lebrecht. For him that “Rondo-burlesque” was no joking matter.
NORMAN LEBRECHT: We’re back to Mahler, and we’re back to Bruno Walter, and it’s January, 1938, and it’s Vienna. And the reason I have chosen this is to show the way that a musical performance can capture the spirit of the time, of how, when it is captured on record, it can freeze that moment in time for all time to come. It’s 1938; the Nazi menace is creeping over Europe, and it is now menacing the Austrian Republic. Evil is at the gates; and Bruno Walter, who was Mahler’s protégé, has returned to Vienna to conduct his last symphony, a work that he had himself given the premiere of, after Mahler’s death, twenty-five seasons before. For that performance in the Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, the whole of the Austrian cabinet, led by Chancellor Dollfuss, turned out. The composer’s widow, Alma, was in the audience. So was his daughter, Anna. The whole of the Austrian intelligentsia were there. It was one of those occasions where everybody claims to have been there. And when you listen to this performance, you hear fate and history knocking at the door. The people who are sitting there know that this may be the last performance of Mahler that they are ever going to hear, because it it’s already been banned in Germany, and if Nazism arrives in Austria, it’s going to be banned and apparently forever. This was, remember, the Thousand-Year Reich. No more Mahler for the next millennium! And Walter, with the Vienna Philharmonic, with Mahler’s brother-in-law, Arnold Rosé, still sitting in the concertmaster’s chair, he’s in his sixtieth year in that chair, conducts a performance of phenomenal intensity, much faster than people here in America will remember him doing it, and much wilder in the “Rondo-burlesque”. Here, one hears the Devil, as Mahler encountered him, one hears the Devil, about to take hold of our lives, to take hold of civilization, to take hold of the whole world. This is admonitory music; it’s music that issues a great warning to history, “don’t let this happen!” And it’s music that captures a moment in time, and that exists on record. This is what recording has done for us. It has captured human history.
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the “Rondo-burlesque” movement of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, a live 1938 performance by the Vienna Philharmonic led by Bruno Walter, music selected by Stuart Woods, Alec Baldwin and Norman Lebrecht when they appeared on “Mad About Music”. And finally we come to Mahler’s Tenth Symphony which Mahler never completed. He was well on his way when he died on May 18, 1911. But many musicologists have since tried to interpret his sketches and have produced full symphonies. Not Mahler, of course, but his sketches were such that all the editors produced rather similar results. None of my guests chose the Tenth but to round out our survey today, I’ll play the final moments of the symphony. And we arrive here after five movements often filled with highly dissonant music, including an explosive 9-note chord until we land on what some regard as Mahler’s most beautifully composed passage. As biographer Michael Kennedy put it: “A great song of life and love, the most fervent and intense in any Mahler symphony.” This was a love song for Mahler’s wife Alma to whom he addressed the heart rending words he wrote in the score near the end: "To live for you; to die for you". And finally, “Almschi”, his nickname for Alma.
KAPLAN: An excerpt from the concluding moments of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony in the edition by Remo Mazzetti and performed by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin. The final notes Mahler ever wrote. And so it resolves, not in death as in the Ninth Symphony, but in love. And now I turn to Mahler scholar Donald Mitchell who best expressed this idea. Here’s what he said:
“The Tenth in its own terms proposes its own new reality. If the Ninth Symphony showed one way of creating meaning out of the duality of life and death, the Tenth with its confident affirmation of love shows another way: the work of art itself would prove that death after all need not have the last word. How ironic that death should have taken Mahler before he had completed the Tenth – which makes known to the world not Mahler’s last defeat, but his last victory.” Or as John Donne, author of “Death, Be Not Proud” might have put it: “At the end of the Tenth, it is Death who dies.”
And so we conclude our 100th anniversary celebration of Mahler’s New York Years on a theme of love. This is Gilbert Kaplan for “Mad About Music.”
