{"id":928,"date":"2008-04-16T22:48:10","date_gmt":"2008-04-17T05:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=928"},"modified":"2008-04-16T22:54:25","modified_gmt":"2008-04-17T05:54:25","slug":"a-long-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/16\/a-long-farewell\/","title":{"rendered":"a long farewell?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"mahler\"<\/a><\/div>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Monday the 21st of April we begin rehearsals on Mahler’s last completed symphonic work, the Ninth Symphony. \u00c2\u00a0As we rehearse each movement (one each rehearsal) I’ll post thoughts on this large and emotionally exhausting work as a preparation for the performances to come.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mahler’s Ninth Symphony has been described as a farewell of an artist who was very much grappling with his mortality. \u00c2\u00a0As with many things, sometimes the language of the composer works best in describing what they’re getting at. \u00c2\u00a0In Mahler’s case, that would be German, and the term of art might be die Verabscheidung<\/em>, meaning farewell, or leave-taking. \u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it is very tempting to leap to the Romantic ideal (\u00c3\u00a1 la the movie Amadeus)<\/em> to see Mahler stricken by a fatal illness, frantically working to complete a valedictory work before death comes to collect its due, I don’t necessarily see the Ninth as having been written with impending death in mind, but rather as an\u00c2\u00a0acknowledgment\u00c2\u00a0that death is inevitable, and that it is time to take stock of the long thread of life already lived.<\/p>\n

The composer Alban Berg, who was present at the work’s premiere (given after Mahler’s death by Bruno Walter and the Vienna Philharmonic in June of 1912) wrote the following in a letter to his wife:<\/p>\n

I have once more played through Mahler’s Ninth. The first movement is the most glorious he ever wrote. It expresses an extraordinary love of this earth, for Nature; the longing to live on it in peace, to enjoy it completely, to the very heart of one’s being, before death comes, as irresistibly it does. The whole movement is based on a premonition of death, which is constantly recurring. All earthly dreams end here; that is why the tenderest passages are followed by tremendous climaxes like new eruptions of a volcano. This, of course, is most obvious of all in the place where the premonition of death becomes certain knowledge, where in the most profound and anguished love of life death appears ‘mit h\u00c3\u00b6chster Gewalt’; then the ghostly solos of violin and viola, and those sounds of chivalry: death in armour. Against that there is no resistance left, and I see what follows as a sort of resignation. Always, though, with the thought of ‘the other side. […]. Again, for the last time, Mahler turns to the earth\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnot to battles and great deeds, which he strips away, just as he did in\u00c2\u00a0Das Lied von der Erde<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0in the chromatic morendo downward runs\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut solely and totally to Nature. What treasures has Earth still to offer for his delight, and for how long?<\/p>\n

For more background and a concise and excellent analysis of the symphony, head over to this page<\/a> at andante.com<\/a>, written by the eminent Mahler scholar Henry-Louis de la Grange.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00c2\u00a0 On Monday the 21st of April we begin rehearsals on Mahler’s last completed symphonic work, the Ninth Symphony. \u00c2\u00a0As we rehearse each movement (one each rehearsal) I’ll post thoughts on this large and emotionally exhausting work as a preparation for the performances to come. Mahler’s Ninth Symphony has been described as a farewell of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-eY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":934,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/19\/a-few-old-school-mahlers-9th-recordings\/","url_meta":{"origin":928,"position":0},"title":"A few old-school Mahler’s 9th recordings","author":"Jeffrey Work","date":"April 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pleased to welcome as my first guest blogger Jeffrey Work, principal trumpet of the Oregon Symphony. He, among other things, is an enthusiastic collector of old recordings, and as such, I thought that he might like to delve into his massive collection and give us some nuggets that relate\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":[]},{"id":973,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/16\/for-the-love-of-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":928,"position":1},"title":"for the love of it","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"It's easy to have a well-developed sense of ennui by the end of a symphonic season, at least if you're a member of the ensemble. But, occasionally, it's nice to have a gut check provided by one of your brothers or sisters in the orchestra world. Mine came this morning\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":531,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/14\/berlin-and-rattle-get-it-right\/","url_meta":{"origin":928,"position":2},"title":"berlin and rattle get it right","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I was up late last night, listening to the new recording on EMI of Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic performing Gustav Mahler's great, heart-rending Ninth Symphony. I have to say that it just might be the best modern recording of any work by any orchestra. [I should note\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\/emi_rattle_mahler9.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":635,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/01\/03\/berlin-phil-mahler-9-on-opb\/","url_meta":{"origin":928,"position":3},"title":"berlin phil mahler 9 on opb","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon Public Broadcasting will present Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in their performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony (from a performance at Carnegie Hall this past fall) along with bits of performances by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. Check out the OPB website for broadcast times (it\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":937,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/22\/mahler-9-i-andante-comodo\/","url_meta":{"origin":928,"position":4},"title":"mahler 9 – I. Andante comodo","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Stuttering, arrhythmic, heartbeat rhythms in the horn and cellos, hesitant fragments of a melody in the distant french horn, then the rocking of the harp, and the first ineffably sad song of melancholic longing in the strings accompanied by restlessly rustling sextuplets in the violas. It's the opening of Mahler's\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":[]},{"id":986,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/23\/snobbery-for-dummies\/","url_meta":{"origin":928,"position":5},"title":"snobbery for dummies","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Columnist Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times has written a great column on how to become an annoying, insufferable, classical music snob.\u00c2\u00a0 It's quite a funny read, and oh so true.\u00c2\u00a0 My favorite bit is his concert experience with Mahler's Sixth Symphony: I downloaded Leonard Bernstein's version of Mahler's\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\/928","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=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}