{"id":941,"date":"2008-04-24T17:26:22","date_gmt":"2008-04-25T00:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=941"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:52:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:52:49","slug":"mahler-9-iv-adagio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/24\/mahler-9-iv-adagio\/","title":{"rendered":"mahler 9 – IV. Adagio."},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re at the final movement of this great symphony, and what a movement it is! If you mention Mahler 9 to almost anyone, they’ll invariably start to talk about the first time they ever heard the slow movement, and how it affected them at a critical time in their life.<\/p>\n

In the orchestral parts, the string parts span only two pages, yet the movement can last upward of 25 minutes. It’s a very slow piece of music, but not an uneventful one.<\/p>\n

This final adagio takes all of the angst and nervous energy of the preceding three movements and turns it all on its head. It’s as if we’ve come through all the stages of grief, and we now must confront the reality of our situation.<\/p>\n

This movement is a by turns sobering, uncomfortable, anguished, wistful, resigned, and ultimately somewhat hopeful journey through the soul of an artist who, more than most, bared his soul without reservation.<\/p>\n

Through the shared experience of his music we see ourselves and the society in which we live, reflected back at us, unflinchingly and honestly.<\/p>\n

The movement opens with a virtual sobbing exhalation in the violins, which becomes a hymn-like melody that seemingly stretches forever. This theme becomes the basis for the entirety of the movement.<\/p>\n[audio:mahler941.mp3]\n

Formally, the movement superficially resembles the first movement, in that there are several anguished climaxes, each of which ebbs into a deeper, darker place than before.<\/p>\n[audio:mahler942.mp3]\n

And finally, we find ourselves in a state of exhaustion, with virtually no hope to be found. The tempo marking is Adagissimo<\/em> – beyond the merely pedestrian notion of slow, and verging into the realm of metaphysics. All seems to be lost – the composer, the orchestra, the audience all must be totally spent at this point. But somehow, there is a glimmer, like the first light of false dawn, that there might be solace, consolation, redemption. I leave further interpretation to you – but make it to the end of this great piece of music, and you will be transformed.<\/p>\n[audio:mahler943.mp3]\n

Again, all the the audio clips from this series are part of a live recording from 1979 of Leonard Bernstein and the Berlin Philharmonic. <\/p>\n

You can pick up this recording either via amazon.com<\/a>\"\" or the DG Web Store<\/a>. I highly recommend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re at the final movement of this great symphony, and what a movement it is! If you mention Mahler 9 to almost anyone, they’ll invariably start to talk about the first time they ever heard the slow movement, and how it affected them at a critical time in their life. In the orchestral parts, the […]<\/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":[148,564,115,2],"tags":[813],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-audio","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-gustav-mahler"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-fb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14106,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/05\/25\/post-season-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":0},"title":"post-season thoughts","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I was musing over this past weekend's performances of Mahler's Third, and there were quite a few remarkable things\/moments that came up - so I thought I'd share them here. In no particular order: James Shields (principal clarinet) has the most amazing clarinet sound I've ever heard. Martha Long's (principal\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":"Oregon Symphony | Photo: \u00a9 Charles Noble","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0290-e1464230460632.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0290-e1464230460632.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0290-e1464230460632.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_0290-e1464230460632.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":938,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/23\/mahler-9-mvt-ii-im-tempo-eines-gemachlichen-landlers\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":1},"title":"mahler 9 – II. Im Tempo eines gem\u00c3\u00a4chlichen L\u00c3\u00a4ndlers.","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"With the opening of the second movement of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, we're immediately in the realm of what Carlos Kalmar calls \"the leather pants!\" or lederhosen. Why? Because as the tempo indication at the beginning of the movement says, \"in a comfortable l\u00c3\u00a4ndler tempo\" \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a l\u00c3\u00a4ndler being a rustic\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":"lederhosen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/lederhosen.thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":936,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/21\/mahler-9-iii-rondo-burleske\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":2},"title":"mahler 9 – III. Rondo. Burleske.","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"What would a Mahler symphony be without a sprawling, hectic, and by turns achingly beautiful scherzo? Well, quite a bit shorter, for one. Mahler is often in the habit of taking a huge movement in cut time and making a huge journey out of it, and the Ninth Symphony is\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":2965,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/10\/kalmar-and-grant-park-do-mahler-9\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":3},"title":"kalmar and grant park do mahler 9","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The OSO's music director Carlos Kalmar has demonstrated an affinity for the music of Gustav Mahler throughout his tenure with the orchestra, usually opening or closing a season with a major work of the Austrian composer.\u00a0 This year, at his other gig, Kalmar began the home stretch of the season\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":101,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/11\/15\/beethovens-op-130-quartet-i-adagio-ma-non-troppo-allegro\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":4},"title":"beethoven’s Op. 130 quartet – I. Adagio ma non troppo. Allegro.","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, we in the Arnica Quartet got through our first late Beethoven quartet together Sunday afternoon. With a piece of the size and complexity of the Op. 130, it would stand to reason that there would be places that we'd like to have done better, but on the whole, it\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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4674,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/19\/a-mahler-apperitif\/","url_meta":{"origin":941,"position":5},"title":"a mahler ap\u00e9ritif","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A portion of the last movement of Mahler's First Symphony with Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic.","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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","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=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}