PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks IV: Mahler’S Ninth Symphony
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Quad City Symphony Orchestra PROGRAM NOTES Masterworks IV: Mahler’s Ninth Symphony By Jacob Bancks Associate Professor of Music Augustana College GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911) Walter on April 1 that “the full score of my Symphony No. 9 Ninth is now finished.” Instrumentation: Piccolo, 4 flutes, 3 oboes, Eng- Much has been made of the “Curse of the lish horn, E-flat clarinet, 3 clarinets, bass clari- Ninth”, the superstition that, after Beetho- net, 4 bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon), ven, a Ninth symphony will necessarily 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, tim- presage a great composer’s death, as it pani, percussion (glockenspiel, 3 low-pitched did also for Schubert and Bruckner. It’s not bells, triangle, cymbals, tam-tam, bass drum, and snare drum), 2 harps, and strings. entirely clear how seriously Mahler took Premiere: June 26, 1912, thirteen months after the curse: he reportedly joked that at least the composer’s death (age 50) by the Vienna his Ninth was in D major (unlike Beetho- Philharmonic, Bruno Walter, conducting. ven’s D minor). Some argue that he at- QCSO Premiere. tempted to jettison the curse by calling his “actual” ninth symphony Das Lied von der Erde, but there is a separate case to be MAHLER’S LEBEWOHL (“FAREWELL”) made that Das Lied is indeed a symphonic song cycle, not a symphony. In any case, The Spring and Summer of 1910 were ex- he doubted the curse enough to begin traordinarily busy for Austrian composer- work in earnest on his Tenth Symphony, a conductor Gustav Mahler. The most press- work which remained incomplete at the ing issue was preparing for the September time of his death in May 1911. premiere of his gargantuan Eighth Sym- phony, the so-called “Symphony of a One of the reasons why talk of this “curse” Thousand”. Aside from that premiere, he is so powerful in Mahler’s case is that the also needed to begin making plans for the Ninth Symphony itself is drenched in the first performances of another already- contemplation of death. Mahler’s friend completed symphonic work, Das Lied von and fellow composer Alban Berg, echoing der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”). And many commentators, called the work’s aside from preparing his own works for first movement “the most wonderful that premiere, he concluded his first hectic sea- Mahler wrote. It is the expression of tre- son as music director of the New York Phil- mendous love for this earth, the longing to harmonic and navigated numerous health live upon it in peace, to enjoy nature to its and family crises. Amid these many con- greatest depths—before death comes. cerns, he wrote to fellow conductor Bruno Then it does come, inexorably.” SUNSET ON A 150-YEAR TRADITION German and Austria like Shostakovich, Si- belius, and American symphonists like Roy Death does indeed come inexorably, not Harris—all, it would seem, indebted to only for composers, but for musical tradi- Mahler in some way. tions as well. Just a few months ago, we heard Joseph Haydn’s ebullient Sym- MAHLER IN AMERICA phony No. 104 on Masterworks II, a work which, if not the exact beginning of the One of the reasons Mahler’s work has res- German symphonic tradition, is one of its onated so strongly in the United States is early masterpieces. As father to the tradi- that at the time of his death he was in the tion, Haydn provided a formal and expres- process of making New York something of sive framework for the many brilliant Ger- a second home. His brilliant and tumultu- man symphonies that followed, including ous decade as music director of the Vi- those of Mozart, Schubert, and most pro- enna State Opera came to an unceremo- foundly, Beethoven, whose Fifth we will nious end in October 1907; by January of hear on Masterworks V. 1908 he was guest-conducting at the New York Metropolitan Opera, and by 1909 he The tradition remained strong throughout had taken the helm of the New York Phil- the nineteenth century in the work of Men- harmonic. He had every intention to con- delssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Bruck- tinue in this post during concert seasons, ner, but showed some signs of weakening: while continuing his ritual of composing in Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, the the summers at his retreat in Toblach, near most “progressive” of the late-nine- the Italian-Austrian border. Had he not teenth-century German composers, came died prematurely, Mahler might have had to regard the symphony as a tired relic, a long and distinguished tenure at the preferring the genres of opera and sym- Philharmonic and made an even greater phonic poem. But Mahler, who otherwise impact on the musical life of America. owed much to Wagner and was friend to Strauss, brought renewed life to the Ger- At the time of his death, Americans knew man symphony, making it the heart of his they had lost a fine musician, but seemed artistic program. uncertain as to his greatness. His May 19, 1911 obituary in the New York Times, for After Mahler, no well-known German com- example, extensively praised Mahler’s re- posers undertook symphonies on the form of the Vienna Opera, but said little same scale. Early on, Arnold Schoenberg about his short tenure at the Philharmonic. seemed poised to continue in Mahler’s And regarding his music, America’s Paper footsteps (his Gurre-Lieder is basically of Record seemed fixated on its grandios- Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” on ity: “For his symphonic works in general it steroids), but Schoenberg ended up writ- may be said that he demands not only a ing only two chamber symphonies, both huge apparatus, but needs the most ex- on a much smaller scale. Certainly, many treme length in which to develop and pre- great symphonies followed throughout pare his ideas.” the century, but from composers outside 2 QCSO Program Notes 2018-19, Masterworks IV As his music rose in prominence and pop- Mahler’s symphonies in the American con- ularity following his death, a consensus cert repertoire. As his successor at the emerged among critics that Mahler’s sym- New York Philharmonic, Bernstein fre- phonies were kitschy, banal, and too long. quently performed and recorded Mahler’s “If there is any music that is eminently a works, and lauded him as a crucial figure routine, reflective, dusty sort of musical in the history of music. “His destiny,” art, it is certainly Mahler’s five latter sym- wrote Bernstein in 1967, “was to sum up, phonies,” wrote critic Paul Rosenfeld in package, and lay to ultimate rest the fan- 1920. “The musical Desert of Sahara is tastic treasure that was German-Austrian surely to be found in these unhappy com- music from Bach to Wagner.” positions… by their very pretentiousness, their gargantuan dimensions, [they] throw Mahler, Symphony No. 9 into relief Mahler’s essential sterility.” Listening Guide First Movement: Andante comodo But despite his detractors among Ameri- (approx. 30 minutes) can critics, Mahler enjoyed many distin- ¯ Remember the movement’s opening guished defenders, especially among to compare it to the closing: both are American composers. In 1926, Aaron Cop- unusually quiet and slow, though the land submitted a letter to the editors of movement begins in the low, dark regis- the New York Times, decrying the fact that ters and ends in the stratosphere. “the music critics of New York City are ¯ Throughout the entire movement, lis- agreed upon at least one point—Gustav ten for the simple, two-note step-down Mahler, as a composer, is hopeless.” Cop- motive: it first appears in the second vi- land conceded that Mahler had “at times olins, and thereafter, it’s everywhere! written music which is bombastic, long- Imagine the word “Farewell” being sung winded, banal.” But, he went on, “from each time; Mahler seems to have bor- the standpoint of orchestration, Mahler is rowed this little fragment from the head and shoulders above Strauss, whose opening of Beethoven’s “Adieux” piano orchestral methods have already dated so sonata, Op. 81a. (The movement’s final, perceptibly. Mahler orchestrates on big, single note can even be thought of as simple lines, in which each note is of im- the much-delayed end of the quotation.) portance. He manages his enormous num- ¯ A unique feature of the opening tex- ber of instruments with extraordinary ture is the murmuring viola gesture (or economy, there are no useless doublings.” tremolando), which shows up a little in Finally, in defense of Mahler’s brilliant use each measure of the opening passage. of counterpoint, Copland asserted that Use this as a signal throughout the “the present-day renewed interest in pol- movement for when Mahler is returning yphonic writing cannot fail to reflect glory to the opening material. At one particu- on Mahler’s consummate mastery of that larly dark and poignant moment late in delicate art.“ the movement, this murmuring figure spreads surreptitiously to the other It was Copland’s friend Leonard Bernstein, string sections. however, who ultimately cemented QCSO Program Notes 2018-19, Masterworks III 3 ¯ The horn is at the forefront of most of Second Movement: In the tempo of a this movement. Notice its split personal- leisurely Ländler ity: though usually resplendent and lav- (approx. 15 minutes) ish, its timbre frequently turns scathing ¯ From Haydn onward, most sympho- and caustic; the latter sound is effected nies included a minuet movement, a by the stopped horn technique, where a genteel dance in 3/4 time. Later com- mute or hand is inserted into the bell of posers gave the minuet a personal spin, the instrument.