It’s nearly the end of Mahler week
Well, I say Mahler week but it’s been a fortnight and it’s still not finished. Back when I started this blog – about 30 years ago – it wasn’t uncommon for me to say things like “oh, I enjoyed that piece of music – I really must get around to listening to more of it”. With my fifties scuttling by at an alarming rate, I’ve decided that I really must get on with it.
Hence Mahler week I mean fortnight.
I’m not a proper musician – I play banjo for God’s sake – but I know my way around sonata form, counterpoint, harmony and so on. I especially love symphonies as they don’t actually have to mean anything – they’re just musical abstraction. A symphony doesn’t expect anything of you except that you turn up equipped with one or more functioning ears (or suitable substitute). You don’t have to know what’s going on – you don’t need to know anything about themes, development, recapitulation, or anything else. You just need to listen.
But where Beethoven and Brahms are beloved old friends, Mahler is a new acquaintance that I don’t know well enough to offer a pair of slippers to. So I figured the best approach was to just play the symphonies through and read a little about each one in the renowned Deryck Cooke book.
First thoughts are that there is more of Wagner than of Beethoven on display. It’s the concept of “continuous melody” in symphonic form. It’s loud and gentle and sarcastic and angry and mournful and very, very beautiful. And I have no idea what I’ve just listened to. It may have to be a Mahler year.
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