I've had time to reflect on Sir Simon Rattle's #Mahler 6th last weekend, and I know what blew me away: it's that it was a European orchestra! Rarely have I heard them live; it's a whole different way of playing. They're like friends casually getting together to make music (only the level of mastery is superlative). Even the way the guy struck the hammer -- kind of hefted it for a second, then rested the head on the floor until it was needed and took a quick, mighty swing... like an executioner.
Also, if anyone has any doubts about the ordering of the inner movements, listen to Sir Simon. The relief of the Andante after that arduous first movement was palpable. Then a brief break for tuning (and for Sir Simon to have a water), and it's into the Scherzo... which he let die down to almost nothing, and then BANG! straight into the Finale without a break. It was absolutely overwhelming. #Mahler was right: Andante, then Scherzo.
A well-deserved ovation for Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian State Radio Orchestra after playing the #Mahler 6th in Chicago this afternoon. Many gave water to the dead. There was screaming in the audience during curtain calls. And yes, the hammer was LOUD. The guy next to me jumped in his seat.
While it doesn't supplant my favorite performance of the Mahler 3rd Symphony (which is Bernstein's classic recording), I would have been happy to be in the audience in 2015 for this performance (as usual, add a dash ["-"] after the "t" in "youtube" of the full url for an ad-free experience if you don't have YouTube Premium; if it says "video unavailable", just refresh): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSBfEPAnDsY#classicalmusic@classicalmusic#symphony#mahler
Bought my train ticket today for Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian State Radio Orchestra playing #Mahler's monstrous 6th Symphony in Chicago this April. As always, it will be the only thing on the program.
Big finish! 👏👏👏 Happy birthday @stuartgrist - was fun celebrating with you on this very #Mahler evening! 🥂🍾 Cheers! And may we all have a safe and healthy new year! #SymSat
Just heard beloved Boston WGBH music presenter Brian O'Donovan — on an encore broadcast of his "Celtic Sojourn" — discussing old guard vs. new guard in Irish traditional music. He capped it with this perfect line from Gustav Mahler:
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire."
Re-watched #Rubin&Ed (1991) film by #TrentHarris (director) on #CathodeCinema the other day and was compelled to make some #typography#fanart to share here. If a person were to use it as their avatar my heart would leap! Echo People Unite!
Several of Mahler's symphonies require 6-8 timpani (on top of generally demanding instrumentation) which makes it difficult for an amateur orchestra to perform them.