Comments on: Heresy

By: Jonas

Jonas — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:04:40 +0000

Cmon Bill, if you knew anything you would know the best moments in Mahler are when there are only a few musicians playing! Dare I say Mahler wrote the best chamber music ever…even better than Mozart?

I don’t see how any conductor can be allowed to live without having Mahler in his repertoire? Can’t get enough of that Cuban Overture…not!

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:32:35 +0000

@Joseph Edwards – Thanks for your story. It is a shame that one has to go through something like that. It’s good that you have that connection to ANY piece of music. There are so many folks out there who do not ever get that kind of connection. (I know some professional musicians who have lost the connection entirely yet still play for the money).

To me, Mahler is good (I’m a brass player) but just like Bill says, too much. Just get on with the piece and say what you want to say. I had a similarly emotional experience with Tchaik. 5 but now all I hear is repetitive phrases that annoy the bejeebus out of me. (Horn solo in 2nd mvmt still gets me though, even as Chet Baker or Glenn Miller arrangements).

By: Joseph Edwards

Joseph Edwards — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 05:24:48 +0000

Thanks to Larry for denouncing Berlioz… Now that I have that out of the way, I would like to share rather shortly what Mahler means to me. I remember hating his music. I could not stand all the “noise” that went on constantly. I cringed every time a motivic phrase was repeated and would start to scratch the walls with bare fingernails to get out of my own dorm room while in conservatory. For there is no reason a first movement has to be longer than a complete Brahms Symphony.
Time proved to teach me the intricacies, nuances, and sheer emotion in his music. I began to listen to them, even buying multiple recordings of each symphony. This allowed me to hear the treatment that various conductors, orchestras, and recording technology shaded the experience of the work. I learned that Mahler was a product of his time. There are plenty of examples that match Mahler’s “over doneness” but we never hear about them because they lack the actual posterity.
If I have made a point, I am glad; if not I apologize for my incoherent state of mind. But I am closing with a story:
My senior year in conservatory I lost a very close friend. He was a tenor, about to open Orpheus in the Underworld and one week before his death I recorded his senior recital. His performance of Bach was astounding. It was all but certain that he would turn out to be the next great Bach tenor. On the day of his death, the school was in shatters. Before official word of classes canceled, we went on with our schedules. It was in a Romantic Symphonies course that I truly discovered Mahler. There we sat silently in the room waiting for the professor to begin. The professor thought very highly of my recently deceased friend and was worried about choosing words. He finally spoke, “So let us just begin. I will not say much, but we will go with the syllabus and listen to the Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th.” That single experience was too much to bare. The entire room, including the professor was in tears. If those reactions are from a composer’s overindulgence, then please keep writing. If it was purely circumstantial, then the music served its ultimate purpose: to move ones emotions.
So let’s have Mahler touch those it reaches. For those of us who cannot be moved by his music, silence yourself and let it be. Pick on something else, because chances are, that will be sacred to somebody too.

By: Conductor SMACKDOWN: Mahler 5 | Inside The Arts

Conductor SMACKDOWN: Mahler 5 | Inside The Arts — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:57:04 +0000

[...] Bill’s Article [...]

By: Larry Fried

Larry Fried — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:02:39 +0000

Nice to hear from a fellow Mahler basher (!!) but “Symphonie Fantastique” is the most overrated piece in the history of classical music.

By: Jan B.

Jan B. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:09:31 +0000

Gee, Ron’s is sincere and, Bill’sl is, how do I put it, funny. Although I like romantic music, it is mostly opera and art songs. I quite agree with Bill’s opinion. Mahler just has too many notes. It’s up there with Jane Austin, just too many words.