Listening Guide – Movement 1: Bedachtig-nicht eilen-recht gemachlich
Transcript The light-hearted effervescent atmosphere of the first movement recalls the music of Mozart and Haydn, while it’s gently flowing lyricism as a Schubertian flavor, but beneath that simple, seemingly bright veneer, lies a wealth of automatic and motivic material creatively reworked in a myriad of variations, permutations and combinations. Hans Redlich compares Mahler’s dramatic […]
Listening Guide – Symphony No. 4 Intro
Transcript The Fourth Symphony was conceived during and grew out of the creative process that produced the third. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the last of the Wunderhorn symphonies should be connected both dramatically and motivetly to its predecessor, Mahler considered ending the Third Symphony with a Wunderhorn song Das irdische Leben as […]
Listening Guide – Movement 6: Langsam. Ruhevoll. Empfunden
Transcript How could one conclude a symphony that has gone through so many different musical settings, expressing such a range of moods and characters? Mahler originally intended to end the third Symphony with the Wunderhorn song Das irdische Leben, an expression of heavenly bliss viewed from a perspective more commonplace than sublime. But he rejected […]