Video Discription |
Gustav Mahler - Symphony No.1
Composed: 1888
00:00 1st Movement
15:37 2nd Movement
23:06 3rd Movement
33:41 4th Movement
[NOTE: THE ALBUM COVER SHOWN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE VIDEO IS NOT THE "RECORDING" OR PERFORMANCE USED IN THE VIDEO. THE COVER IS USED FOR PURELY DEMONSTRATIVE PURPOSES. THE AUDIO WAS CREATED USING A COMPUTER WITHOUT HUMAN PERFORMERS.]
When the symphony was first performed it had a title, ‘Titan’ – taken from the once-famous novel by the German romantic writer Jean Paul (the pen name of Johann Paul Richter). For Richter the ‘Titan’, the true genius, is a ‘Heaven- Stormer’ (Himmelsstürmer) an obsessive, almost recklessly passionate idealist. The idea appealed strongly to Mahler, but so too did Richter’s vividly poetic descriptions of nature. For the premiere, Mahler set out his version of the Titan theme in an explanatory programme note, which told how the symphony progressed from ‘the awakening of nature at early dawn’, through youthful happiness and love, to the sardonic gloom of the funeral march, and then to the finale, subtitled ‘From Inferno to Paradise’. And it was clear that Mahler’s interest in Richter’s theme was more than literary. Behind the symphony, he hinted to friends, was the memory of a love affair that had ended, painfully, at about the time he began work on the symphony.
However, Mahler soon began to lose faith in programmes. ‘I would like it stressed that the symphony is greater than the love affair it is based on’, he wrote. ‘The real affair became the reason for, but by no means the true meaning of, the work’. In later life he could be blunt: when someone raised the subject at an evening drinks party, Mahler is said to have leapt to his feet and shouted, ‘Perish all programmes!’ But for most listeners, music that is so passionate, dramatic and so full of the sounds of nature can’t be fully explained in the detached terms of ‘pure’ musical analysis. Fortunately the First Symphony is full of pointers to possible meanings beyond the notes. The main theme of the first movement – heard on cellos and basses after the slow, intensely atmospheric ‘dawn’ introduction – is taken from the second of Mahler’s four Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (‘Songs of a Wayfarer’), written as a ‘memorial’ to his affair with the singer Johanna Richter (no relation of the novelist, but the name connection is striking). In the song, a young man, jilted in love, sets out on a beautiful spring morning, hoping that nature will help his own heart to heal. For most of the first movement, Mahler seems to share the young man’s hope. The ending seems cheerful enough. But at the heart of the movement comes a darkly mysterious passage, echoing the ‘dawn’ introduction, but adding sinister new sounds: the low, quiet growl of a tuba, ominous drum-beats, and a repeated sighing figure for cellos. For a moment, the music seems to echo the final words of the song: ‘So will my joy blossom too? No, no; it will never, never bloom again.’
Dance music dominates the second movement, especially the robust, earthy vigour of the Ländler (the country cousin of the sophisticated urban Waltz). There are hints here of another, earlier song, Hans und Grete, in which gawky young Hans finds a sweetheart at a village dance – all innocent happiness. But the slower, more reflective Trio brings more adult expression: nostalgia and, later, sarcasm (shrill high woodwind). The third movement is in complete contrast. This is an eerie, sardonic funeral march, partly inspired by a painting by Jacques Callot, ‘The Huntsman’s Funeral’, in which a procession of animals carry the hunter to his grave. One by one, the orchestral instruments enter quietly, playing a famous old nursery tune, Frère Jacques – which sounds like another interesting name connection, except that Austrians like Mahler would have known the tune to the words ‘Brother Martin, are you sleeping?’ At the heart of this movement, Mahler makes a lengthy quotation from the last of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. The song tells in soft, gentle tones of how a young man, stricken with grief at the loss of the girl he loves, finds consolation in the thought of death. This is the dark heart of the First Symphony.
But this is not the end of the story. In the finale Mahler strives onward – in the words of the discarded programme, ‘From Inferno to Paradise’. At first all is turbulence, but when the storm has died down, strings present an ardent, slower melody – unmistakably a love theme. There’s a brief memory of the first movement’s ‘dawn’ music, then the struggle begins again. Eventually massed horns introduce a new, radiantly hopeful theme, strongly reminiscent of ‘And he shall reign’ from Handel’s Messiah. More reminiscences and still more heroic struggles follow, until dark introspection is finally overcome, and the symphony ends in jubilation. Mahler’s hero has survived to live, and love, another day. [4RlWERMhQlw] |