Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site hou4b.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!hogpc!houti!ariel!hou4b!mat 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 References: <189@desint.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ Lines: 31 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 ,.. .,, ,,, ..,***_*.