Oh, for sure we're not in BrahmsWorld anymore.
Then again, are we sure we're absolutely sure?
FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: PART 2 OF THE POST
IS NOW UP, SO THE LINKS TO IT SHOULD BE LIVE!
"In no other of his symphonies did Mahler's imagination range as widely as in the Third. . . . Mahler, having opened the multitudinous way of this Third with an obeisance to dignity, proceeds at once to plunge us into realms of vast and primeval creation."
-- noted critic Neville Cardus
(1888-1975), from his grand 1967 "Appreciation of Mahler's Third"
[We'll be hearing a lot more about -- and especially
from -- Neville C.'s Mahler 3 "appreciation" in Part 2 of this post (about which, see below).]
[NOTE: AT ANY TIME YOU CAN JUMP TO PART 2 OF THE POST]
DO YOU EVER LIKE TO CHEAT AND PEEK AHEAD TO THE END OF A WORK YOU'RE ENGAGED WITH?
We can do that! And it so happens that our composer has provided us with a perfect "pick-up" point, marked Tempo I -- a return to the very starting tempo. Just watch your volume setting, though: This section begins very quietly. I'll also point out, by way of a tease, that at the end, the composer marked the final 2½ bars, for the whole orchestra, "Mit höchster Kraft" -- "With highest strength."
New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein, cond. DG,
recorded live in Avery Fisher Hall, Nov. 25-28, 1987
by Ken
Was it clear up above, when I referred to "the
end of a work," that the reference was not to the end of the Mahler Third Symphony but to the end of
the first movement? As a matter of fact, in Part 2 of this post we
are going to sneak-peek the end of the
symphony. For now, though, I've been thinking through all these "silent" blogweeks that we have to deal more fully with the wonderful craziness, the marching madness, of this colossal movement than I did in the July 23 post, where "
we [wound] up trapped in the gigantic first movement of the Mahler Third Symphony."
FIRST, A FEW WORDS ABOUT THIS "DOUBLE POST"
Back in that July 23 post where we first "[wound] up trapped in the gigantic first movement of the Mahler Third Symphony," I wrote:
My first thought was to reach back to the booklet presentation by the great English critic (and Mahler enthusiast) Neville Cardus for RCA's 1966 Leinsdorf-BSO Mahler 3 recording. But with all the musical examples to reproduce as well as all that text to be type, that seemed an impossibly arduous labor.
This post is, then, a ridiculously delayed continuation of the July 23 one, growing out of a felt need to bring some more substantial tools to bear on the tempestuous journey that is the first movement of Mahler 3. As this post began taking shape, splitting into a pair of posts, and I started sorting out what would go in which part, I worried increasingly whether the form the thing was taking wouldn't defeat the whole undertaking, since the one significant new "tool" I was bringing to the part was -- after all! -- a re-creation of the portion of Neville C.'s Mahler 3 "appreciation" which deals with the first movement, considering that N.C.'s guide looked to be bumped into Part 2.
All this while I thought about rejiggering post elements, maybe just flipping Parts 1 and 2? I wound up leaving stuff mostly where it was, on one condition, assuming the two parts could be posted at the same time: a repeated advisory that the two parts of the post can be taken in in either order, including shuttling back and forth between them. -- Ed.
[REMEMBER, AT ANY TIME YOU CAN JUMP RIGHT TO PART 2]
OKAY, TIME TO ROLL UP OUR SLEEVES AND CONTEMPLATE
THREE STAGES OF A MEMORABLE MUSICAL METAMORPHOSIS
STAGE 1 -- Could this grand old theme be any more classic? But
notice how differently the great tune can be presented to us!
Vienna Philharmonic, Rafael Kubelik, cond. Decca, recorded September 1957
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, cond. Philips, recorded April 1977
Staatskapelle Dresden, Kurt Sanderling, cond. Eurodisc, recorded Nov. 1971
Speaking of metamorphosis, already in this initial statement the theme is undergoing it. And note how our conductors handle it: Kubelik starting simply, then building beautifully and also decisively; Ozawa phrasing so grandly yet intimately; Sanderling tone-painting the vibrant harmonies so, er, harmoniously! -- Ed.
