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From: mat@hou4b.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: What about Mahler?
Message-ID: <1204@hou4b.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Nov-84 02:54:46 EST
Article-I.D.: hou4b.1204
Posted: Mon Nov  5 02:54:46 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Nov-84 06:34:58 EST
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And what of Mahler?

	Bruno Walter's style seems a bit out of fashion these days.  I would
characterize it as ``sensitive to the music''.  I recently heard Solti say
that he had finally understood the Brahms Fourth, finally discovered how to
conduct it.  He called it ``serene'' and in his hands, it was indeed played
with a resignation that had to be called serenity.  Contrast that with the
more traditional stormy interpretation.

	Walter would more likely (I think...) have gotten inside the music
rather than mold it from the outside.  I've got the Odessey (Columbia)
recording of his famous Mahler's Ninth.  Dynamite.  It's not as energetic nor
as violent as Solti's new CD, but it ``sings'' -- one hears the tragedy as
well as the violence.  Of course, if you are playing it because you are in a
violent mood ...

	My feelings on Mahler's 1st and 9th symphonies border on ecstacy.
On the second and third I'm not so clear.  I have a couple of recodings that
are supposed to be good, but they come across as unconvincing and artificial.
Mahler is demanding, that's for sure.  For me, he is the only composer to come
close to the sheer emotional energy levels of Beethoven's 9th, Missa Solemnis,
and Grosse Fuge.  True, Mahler has more resources to work with ... bigger
orchestras, wilder harmonies, etc.  But he seems to be presenting himself,
rather than opening himself, in the second through fourth symphonies (I
haven't got 5 through 8).  The fault probably lies in the particular
interpretations, rather than the works themselves.
-- 

	from Mole End			Mark Terribile
		(scrape .. dig )	hou4b!mat
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