Oh no, not Mahler again!

I can’t quite figure this out. For the past few years I’ve had spontaneous Mahler-itis  in the month of December. I wouldn’t have noticed a pattern if I hadn’t been keeping track of my listening sessions (as I’ve been doing over the past several years). Only a few weeks ago I grabbed my Mahler box and listened to three symphonies in one day – the 5th, 6th and 7th.

 Prior to that I finally got around to listening to my Mahler 9th Symphony disc with Pierre Boulez conducting. That was the last of the big Mahler pieces I needed to hear. It really seemed to me to be a final summation of everything else that came before it. All the thirty-one flavors were available under one roof with the 9th. (Possibly only here will you get a comparison between Mahler and Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream).

I therefore feel it is my duty to point out that if you’re expecting a scholarly dissertation about Gustav Mahler and his celebrated musical output on this blog you’re probably going to be disappointed. No worries, though. If scholarship and analysis is what you crave, there is no shortage of this information elsewhere on the web. Mahler is one of the most widely written about composers of the late Romantic era. Mahler is to the “serious” music world what Bob Dylan is to the rock and roll world. Mahler’s work has been dissected, theorized about, re-imagined, extolled and debated-over ad infinitum. In a previous entry I made the case for the emergence of the long playing 33 1/3 RPM album in the late 1940s and the ascendance of Mahler’s star in the latter half of the 20th Century. That is, in my opinion, one half of the puzzle. The other half of what may possibly explain the fascination with Mahler into our current times, comes from a theory proposed by Leonard Bernstein.

Bernstein made it part of his life’s work to actively crusade for a greater, more sweeping recognition of Mahler’s work beyond the symphony halls of the world. Bernstein believed Mahler’s music was the secret key that would unlock a deeper understanding about modern humanity’s place in the post-World War II era (continuing through today). If I’m reading Bernstein correctly, this understanding would transcend even the limited timeframe of the Cold War (Shostakovich being more suited to musically documenting that era). Leonard Bernstein certainly must have believed in Mahler’s music, maybe even more passionately than his own, since his recordings of the Mahler symphonies are considered among the most definitive by experts. Those experts – the Mahlerites – have been a lucky bunch over the years. Between the proliferation of the music on records and Bernstein’s tireless promotion of it, appreciation of Mahler is arguably at an all time high. The Mahler vibe is alive and well with no signs of diminuendo.

When I started out on my slightly more organized journey into “serious music” one of the first pieces of music I sat down to listen to was Mahler’s “Song of the Earth”. I got a mint stereo copy of this famous box set with Fritz Reiner conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as part of a freecycle haul years ago. I kept this especially since I remembered reading an article on how The Beatles’ song “Not a Second Time” had a harmonic similarity to the ending of Mahler’s work. Here is that famous article:

http://www.beatlesbible.com/1963/12/27/the-times-what-songs-the-beatles-sang-by-william-mann/

Not that The Beatles had any conscious idea of what they were doing (most likely)! True or not, this association stuck in my mind years later so when I came across this 2 LP set in the pile I knew enough not to discard it. I’m not sure what the heavy Mahlerites think of the Fritz Reiner / Chicago Symphony / RCA “Living Stereo” version of Das Lied. I do know what I thought of it on first listen……confused as hell! Of course, it isn’t always advisable to read the last chapter in a book to get a sense of what the story is about. What I did manage to learn about this piece is that it was inspired by some ancient Chinese poetry which may or may not have been translated into Mahler’s German very well. So, I figured if Mahler was stuck with an inaccurate text to work with, how critical can anybody be when it comes to this kind of music?

As it happens, my listening to “Das Lied” coincided with the passing of a friend of mine, who happened to have excellent taste in music. Although we were not close friends per se, our conversations were always animated by a mutual love of great music. I had gone to visit him in the hospital when he took ill which ended up being the last time I saw him. I think he knew “this might be it” and as I was shaking his hand he held onto mine for a slightly longer period of time than what would be considered normal. It was a final goodbye.

    Returning home from my friend’s wake later in the month, I immediately felt it was the right time to hear “Das Lied”. True to my own processing pattern, I felt more moved by the overall sound of the music than of the significance of the texts. What can I tell you – I’m just not a lyric guy! When I started hearing other Mahler works I eventually realized that “Das Lied” stands a bit apart from his other works since it has a generally even-keeled sensibility to it – stately and somewhat morose, yet dignified. However, the music is not sentimental Romantic mush. The music borders on the “modern”, in fact. Which is precisely where Mahler belongs – feet in the Romantic era, head in the modern.

“Das Lied” was apparently sketched out initially as an almost-9th symphony. Some Mahler experts see it this way, while others will point out he did finish a proper 9th and started a proper 10th. I think Mahler was fairly obsessed with the symphony as the ultimate framework of expression for a composer’s true inner self. Which is fascinating when one considers he spent most of his working life conducting opera. What’s even more amazing is that he managed to compose as much as he did with such a busy conducting schedule. Still, the modern technology we have now affords us listeners with the opportunity to own a single box set with quality performances of every stitch of music he feverishly scribbled onto staff paper (like the one pictured above).

    I didn’t just jump from “Das Lied” to the box set, however. Like I said, “Das Lied” hit me on an emotional level, but otherwise I was pretty baffled. I figured maybe this Mahler guy was ultimately too doom-n-gloom for me in general. It took going back to the beginning to gain entrance to the Mahler inner sanctum. My guide would be Bruno Walter – early champion and friend to the composer for many years. The piece would be Symphony #1.

Ironically, the third movement of this piece had something in common with a Beatles song. In 1966, the Beatles released a hard-driving single with a great vocal by Paul McCartney called “Paperback Writer”. As part of the backing vocal part to that song, the French children’s folksong “Frère Jacques” provided the main inspiration. Once its pointed out it becomes very obvious, if it isn’t noticed anyway. In Mahler’s 1st, “Frère Jacques” also forms the main backing motif for a “funeral dirge” movement. Just as the Beatles would do many years later, Mahler uses this common folksong to his advantage – the melody moves the piece along, yet it serves to provide just the perfect touchstone melody to hook the listener in with a familiar tune. At least, that’s what it did for me.

    Mahler’s first can fit on one LP and, although it didn’t wow the concert-going crowd at the time of its premier, it is one of the most commonly found pieces of his on record. I’ve seen mad, crazy copies of Mahler’s 1st  - I have lots on LP and there’s plenty I’ve left in the bins for others to plunder over the years. As it happens, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas dedicated a nice episode of his “Keeping Score” series to Mahler’s 1st which blew my mind even further! There’s all kinds of intense stuff built into this symphony – things I never would have known about if it weren’t for this cool series. I was going to post a link here - especially since PBS has kept the video on their site - yet its no longer featured! Let's hope they bring it back since it was really awesome. Well worth seeking out somehow........

From the 1st, I wound up jumping to the 5th. Unfortunately, I bought a Karajan mid-70s recording that baffled me even more than “Das Lied”. It was rough going trying to grapple with that thing! Eventually I grasped onto the last movement which seemed to tie everything else together, but Karajan’s reading is far from my favorite these days. I’d give a nod to Bernstein’s reading from the 1960s on Columbia.

After the shock of the 5th, I was pleasantly surprised by the user-friendliness of the 4th – another short-n-sweet symphony in Mahler’s cannon. I’d initially heard a cheapo version on CD, though now I’d give the nod to Fritz Reiner’s version. I then jumped over to the 8th – The Symphony of a Thousand. I really liked the Solti reading for Decca in the early 70s.  At this point I’d been leapfrogging around the symphonies and felt I needed to take a more chronological approach. I also decided that simply pulling the pieces off the CD box set would be too passive for my listening habits so I set about finding some remaining symphonies on vinyl. I got ahold of a 2nd and 3rd this way – both being double albums! The 2nd was a reissue copy of  Bruno Walter conducting the New York Philharmonic. The 3rd is a Bernstein / New York Philharmonic reading from the early 60s.  Both of these albums helped me to dig in deeper and discover the uniqueness of those two excellent pieces.

At around the same time I found LP copies of Bernstein’s 60s performance of the 5th (better than Karajan’s) and Szell’s reading of the 6th with the Cleveland Philharmonic. All of these pieces are LONG. Mahler loved long symphonic works. Having the music broken up over the course of 4 LP sides provided appropriate breaks for me. Getting familiar with all the different movements of each symphony somehow was easier with the vinyl LP format. It was only after playing the records a bunch of times that I felt ready to move back to the discs in my CD box set.

    The one exception to this approach was my first listen to Mahler’s 7th which involved an open reel tape of Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic I got off ebay cheaply. It turned out to be excellent and I took to it right off the bat. Here are a few other Mahler open reels I have:

Take a look at this wacky thing:

A misguided attempt to make Mahler psychedelic for the hippie crowd? This record has excerpts from various symphonies – presumably the more popular parts. The sleeve notes on the back of the jacket were written by Dave Marsh from Creem Magazine. I don’t doubt his sincerity about appreciating Mahler’s music, but to compare Mahler to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the MC5 is just a bit too much! Decca Records created an imprint for this series of classical samplers called “Orphic Egg”. Take a look at this inane legend on the record jacket:

I think Mahler would have been appalled. This “Orphic Egg” series must have been concocted to compete with the Westminster Gold weirdness……..

    Instead of “Mahler’s Head” I decided to re-listen to “Das Lied” while I was typing this. My ears tend to accept the rougher edges of the tonalities here and overall I am enjoying the music. Yet, I’m feeling conscious of the fact that I am not reading along with the words. Ah, with any luck I’ll live to a ripe old age and have nothing better to do than to revisit ALL of the Mahler symphonies several times over during the course of a prolonged retirement on my way out of the temporal world.

Music can play a big part of that passage through the temporal zone, as it did for Herr Mahler. His symphonies were like planets unto themselves – he designed them as such. Yet, just as time passes – what were burning questions and desires at one point are superceded by other questions and desires. It was Mahler’s job as the composer to document his inner life for all to hear. That his music had a particular resonance long after his death is quite astounding. We don’t tend to think of composers as visionaries and mediums. Yet, it is often the case that those who dare to dream big dreams tend to dream outside the confines of the grey, blah and “meh” existence us mere mortals inhabit from day to day. Our lives become that much richer when we dare to dream along with our sonic spirit-guides.

    Keep those dreams grand and bold in the new year! Thanks again for stopping by to read this stuff. As always – Happy Listening!