{"id":7575,"date":"2012-05-09T09:02:49","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T16:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=7575"},"modified":"2013-02-07T21:07:58","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T05:07:58","slug":"sibelius-an-mahler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/09\/sibelius-an-mahler\/","title":{"rendered":"sibelius & mahler"},"content":{"rendered":"

[In October 1907] Sibelius met the composer Gustav Mahler, who was visiting Helsinki. The two colleagues noticed that they had experienced the same phenomenon: with each new symphony both of them always lost listeners who had been captivated by the previous symphony.<\/p>\n

But they disagreed about the essence of the symphony as a musical form. “I said that I admired its strictness and style and deep logic, which requires that all its motifs must be linked to each other,” Sibelius recollected later. “Nein, die Symphonie muss sein wie die Welt. Sie muss alles umfassen,” answered Mahler. (“No, the symphony must be like the world. It must encompass everything.”)<\/p>\n

– www.sibelius.fi<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"I love both Sibelius’ and Mahler’s music, their symphonies especially. But, I have lately (with the reading of the excellent new Mahler biography<\/a> by Jens Malte Fischer) decided that Mahler’s own comment about what the symphony should be is actually somewhat ironic. I’ll explain. I believe that Sibelius actually did what Mahler intended in the literal sense. His symphonies are profoundly influenced by nature – nature without man, I’d say. Just the vast expanses of green forests, blue skies, and white snow of his beloved Finnish landscapes. Mahler, on the other hand, I believe, illustrates the interior world of man’s psyche – more specifically, Mahler’s own. And this is where the power of each composer’s works lies. Sibelius depicts the majesty, \"\"power, and awe-inspiring beauty of nature with such vividness – that the power of his orchestral climaxes are almost unbearable, like trying to look directly at the bright, midday sun. Mahler, on the other hand, finds equally powerful climaxes, but they are triumphs and tragedies of the human spirit, not of the physical world.<\/p>\n

What do you think, and what are your favorite moments in Sibelius’ and\/or Mahler’s symphonic output?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[In October 1907] Sibelius met the composer Gustav Mahler, who was visiting Helsinki. The two colleagues noticed that they had experienced the same phenomenon: with each new symphony both of them always lost listeners who had been captivated by the previous symphony. But they disagreed about the essence of the symphony as a musical form. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,2],"tags":[813,3047,3048],"class_list":["post-7575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-gustav-mahler","tag-jean-sibelius","tag-symphonies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Yb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13957,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/08\/sibelius-150th\/","url_meta":{"origin":7575,"position":0},"title":"sibelius’ 150th","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy Birthday, Jean Sibelius! I love the symphonies of Sibelius (with the possible exception of No. 2, and that's only because of the endless scale patterns that annoy me to play - I love listening to it), and I have since before there was ever an inkling that I'd make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "arts journalism\/criticism"","block_context":{"text":"arts journalism\/criticism","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/arts-journalismcriticism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/sibelius-1233768543-hero-wide-1.jpg?fit=618%2C298&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/sibelius-1233768543-hero-wide-1.jpg?fit=618%2C298&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/sibelius-1233768543-hero-wide-1.jpg?fit=618%2C298&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13641,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/01\/07\/symphonic-desert-island-list\/","url_meta":{"origin":7575,"position":1},"title":"symphonic desert island list","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"CK Dexter Haven is one of the classical blogosphere's most respected bloggers, and he's always got something interesting to say - and lots of inside scoop on the goings on at the LA Philharmonic. This past week, Mr. CKDH was on a long drive to the Santa Barbara wine country\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":530,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/12\/classical-6-imix\/","url_meta":{"origin":7575,"position":2},"title":"Classical 6 iMix","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the iMix for this coming week's classical series concerts with conductor Hannu Lintu and cellist Ralph Kirshbaum. The recommended Sibelius recording is from a set recorded in the 60's by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. I'd' long heard that it was a landmark recording of the complete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/spacer1.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13712,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/08\/2014-2105-a-retrospective-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":7575,"position":3},"title":"2014-2105: a retrospective, part two","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, for the big list - the stuff I played with the Oregon Symphony this past season*. Lots of variety, and some holes in repertoire that I really couldn't believe when I looked at the list - only one work by Brahms, for example? Hm... Barber - Adagio for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/noble-oso-pic-e1408736178252.jpg?fit=451%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/23\/a-look-back-pt-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":7575,"position":4},"title":"a look back, pt. 1","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought I'd start off next Monday by taking a retrospective at the 2007-2008 OSO season, both on stage and off. But for now, a list of the works we performed this season on the Classical Subscription and Inside the Score series. I'm always somewhat dumbfounded when I look through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7566,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/06\/brittens-sea-sibelius-last-symphony-and-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":7575,"position":5},"title":"britten’s sea, sibelius’ last symphony, and more","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Monday morning the OSO begins its rehearsals for next weekend's penultimate classical series of the 2011-2012 season. Yes, then end of our season is just over two weeks away. It's hard to believe, often, it seems to stretch into infinity around January or February, and then May is here, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}