Episodes
Series | Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Comments |
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2010 | 01 | 20100705 | In the beginning, before the anguish, the failing health, before even meeting his beloved Alma, Gustav Mahler had been happy - in his way... In this week's Composer Of The Week, Donald Macleod explores Mahler's early years - from his humble birth in the Bohemian backwater of Kaliste to his triumphant installation as Director of the Vienna Opera at the age of 37. Mahler's early years are often skipped over by biographers keen to feast on the juicy details of his tempestuous last decade...yet it was in this formative period that the composer wrote some of his very finest works, including his gargantuan, brilliantly original first four symphonies and a veritable plethora of solo songs. Linking this week's episodes is a focus on the influence of 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' - an anthology of German folk poetry collected by Gottfried von Arnim and Clemens Brentano that obsessed Mahler throughout his youth. Donald Macleod introduces a host of songs written to texts from the anthology, including all ten set by the composer in his collection entitled 'Lieder aus 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' - as well as a number of rare early songs inspired by the poems. Donald Macleod also explores the voluminous textual and musical links between Mahler's symphonies and the Wunderhorn poetry; we'll hear extended excerpts from the first three, and on Friday a complete performance of the apotheosis of his early period, his serene Fourth Symphony. In the first of this week's exploration of Mahler's 'Wunderhorn' period, Donald Macleod looks at the composer's childhood and earliest works, including a rare Piano Quartet movement, and his extraordinary cantata 'Das Klagende Lied'. Donald Macleod focuses on Mahler's childhood and earliest compositions. | |
2010 | 02 | 20100706 | In 1885, Mahler was deeply in love for the first time - it wasn't to be the last. The composer's unrequited passion for opera singer Johanna Emma Richter led to the composition of the exquisite 'Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen' for voice and orchestra, which in turn cross-pollinated his First Symphony. Donald Macleod explores links between Mahler's early songs and his first symphonic work, including a rare performance of the orchestral movement 'Blumine'. Donald Macleod explores links between Mahler's early songs and his First Symphony. | |
2010 | 03 | 20100707 | By the early 1890s, Mahler had made a name for himself as one of the most brilliant conductors working in Europe - though his hugely original compositions were seen as more eccentric than brilliant. In today's episode, Donald Macleod introduces a work that helped secure his reputation: his Second Symphony, the 'Resurrection', and explores links between the work and Mahler's settings of poetry from the collection 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn'. Donald Macleod presents more Mahler songs inspired by Des Knaben Wunderhorn. | |
2010 | 04 | 20100708 | On 11th May 1897, aged just 37, Mahler made a triumphant debut as the director of the Vienna Opera - the post seen almost universally as the peak of his entire profession. It was the culmination of years of careful political machinations, and arguably the high point of his musical career. Little did anyone know that he had already lived nearly three quarters of his life. In today's episode, Donald Macleod introduces sparkling arrangements of two songs by the American jazz musician and musicogist Uri Caine, as well as the finale of the immense Third Symphony, itself closely related to Mahler's 'Wunderhorn' settings. Donald Macleod introduces arrangements of two Mahler songs by jazz musician Uri Caine. | |
2010 | 05 LAST | 20100709 | At the dawn of the 20th century, now firmly installed as the most powerful musician in Europe, Gustav Mahler bade farewell to his youthful 'Wunderhorn' period, to embark on a tempestuous final decade of love and death, ecstasy and despair. To end this week's exploration of Mahler's early years, Donald Macleod introduces a complete performance of the composer's serene Fourth Symphony, the pinnacle of his first compositional period and his most profound fusion of song and symphony before 'Das Lied von Der Erde', a decade later. Donald Macleod introduces a complete performance of Mahler's Symphony No 4. | |
2011 | 01 | 20110530 | There are so many versions of Gustav Mahler that you can pick your own: the ultimate visionary who slipped mysteriously into obscurity for almost a century, the conducting genius recreated in a Ken Russell film, or perhaps the mystical figure re-imagined in the works of jazz musicians and electronic composers. And then there's one of the most fascinating Mahlers of them all: the one portrayed by his wife Alma in a famously controversial yet compelling biography. This week Donald Macleod explores this alluring source, and with it the last decade of the composer's life - the 'Alma' years. It's a portrait which says as much about the biographer as her subject. We meet a seductress, magnetically drawn to the greatest artists of her time, and who admitted openly that her love was more for Mahler's creative powers than anything else. But she was also an essential part of Mahler's life, helping to create a stable background for a man utterly obsessed with music both as composer and conductor. Through her, we glimpse Mahler's many passions and foibles: his quest for physical fitness, his dedication to his home city of Vienna despite the open hostility it returned him, and his emotional frailties which led him to a famed consultation with Sigmund Freud. We see Alma's weaknesses to, not least her marital infidelity which rocked their marriage in Mahler's last years. The music includes many of his most impassioned works: the fateful 'hammer blows' of the Symphony no.6, the emotional devastation of the Kindertotenlieder encapsulating Mahler's response to the death of his brother in childhood, and the gargantuan 'Symphony of a Thousand' written in a flurry of emotion at his composition retreat. There's also a rare chance to hear Alma Mahler's own songs, kept from publication until Mahler encouraged her to release them at the very end of his career. And we also hear from a landmark BBC broadcast, the first presentation of the posthumously completed Symphony no.10, a programme which Alma Mahler embargoed from repeat transmission. It's an insight not just into the compositional mind of its creator, but also Alma's ardent belief in herself as the guardian of his legacy. To open the week, Donald Macleod sets the scene for Mahler's relationship with his wife, from her unflattering account of his clumsiness at their wedding to happy memories of the private symphony premieres he would give her at the piano. Donald Macleod sets the scene for Mahler's relationship with his wife. | |
2011 | 02 | 20110531 | Donald Macleod explores the motives behind Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. | |
2011 | 03 | 20110601 | Donald Macleod discusses how Mahler's relationship with Vienna began to chill. | |
2011 | 04 | 20110602 | Donald Macleod focuses on the consequences of the death of Mahler's daughter. | |
2011 | 05 LAST | 20110603 | No wonder Mahler turned to Sigmund Freud for help - his wife's infidelity was laid bare and his health was deteriorating. Donald Macleod charts Mahler's final turbulent years, beginning with part of a BBC radio programme which Alma Mahler kept away from public ears for many years after her husband's death. Donald charts Mahler's final turbulent years. | |
2014 | 01 | From Bohemia To Vienna | 20140210 | Donald Macleod explores Mahler's childhood in Bohemia and his studies in Vienna. Gustav Mahler rose from humble beginnings on the fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to become one of the most powerful figures in the musical establishment. Nowadays his symphonies are almost guaranteed to fill concert halls, but during his lifetime Mahler made his name as a conductor. Mahler's early years were spent in rural Bohemia, and the sounds and songs of the countryside were to have a lasting influence on his music. His early songs are inspired by teenage sweethearts, while a prizewinning piece of chamber music composed at the Vienna Conservatoire shows the influence of Brahms, Schubert and Wagner. Mahler's passionate affair with a married woman brought on a creative torrent that led to the completion of his first symphony. Mahler is inspired by the countryside in Bohemia and works towards his First Symphony. |
2014 | 02 | The Wunderhorn Years | 20140211 | Donald Macleod explores Mahler's youthful fascination with the anthology of German folk poetry, Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Gustav Mahler rose from humble beginnings on the fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to become one of the most powerful figures in the musical establishment. Nowadays his symphonies are almost guaranteed to fill concert halls, but during his lifetime Mahler made his name as a conductor. Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn) was a major influence on Mahler's early songs and symphonies. Mahler loved its mixture of realism and fantasy, of the commonplace and the extraordinary, the tragic and the humorous. Mahler finds inspiration for his songs and symphonies in folk poetry. |
2014 | 03 | In Charge In Vienna | 20140212 | Donald Macleod traces the course of Mahler's career as he takes up the most prestigious post in music, Director of the Vienna Court Opera. Gustav Mahler rose from humble beginnings on the fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to become one of the most powerful figures in the musical establishment. Nowadays his symphonies are almost guaranteed to fill concert halls, but during his lifetime Mahler made his name as a conductor. Mahler had landed the most important job of his life, but his conducting duties in Vienna often prevented him from composing. Yet during the summer, in his woodland composing hut on the banks of Lake Attersee in Upper Austria, he would write some of his most enduring symphonies. Symphony No 4 in G major (2nd mvt) Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell In diesem Wetter (Kindertotenlieder) Hermann Prey, baritone Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink Symphony No 5 in C sharp minor (1st mvt) Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein 5 Rückert-Lieder Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano NDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner Producer: Callum Thomson. Mahler lands the most important job of his career, at the Vienna Court Opera. |
2014 | 04 | The Arrival Of Alma | 20140213 | Donald Macleod examines the influence on Mahler's music, for good and ill, of his wife Alma. Gustav Mahler rose from humble beginnings on the fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to become one of the most powerful figures in the musical establishment. Nowadays his symphonies are almost guaranteed to fill concert halls, but during his lifetime Mahler made his name as a conductor. Alma Schindler, known at the time as 'the most beautiful woman in Austria', entered Mahler's life around the turn of the 20th century. She initially found the composer abrupt and dogmatic, but their relationship sparked into life very quickly and they were engaged within three weeks, despite Mahler's reluctance about the age difference between them. Their relationship would determine the course of the rest of Mahler's life. Symphony No 6 in A minor (2nd mvt) (Scherzo) London Philharmonic Orchestra conduc ted by Klaus Tennstedt Der Einsame im Herbst; Von der Jugend; Von der Sch怀nheit (Das Lied von der Erde) Violeta Urmana, mezzo-soprano Michael Schade, tenor Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez Symphony No 7 (5th mvt) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Chailly Producer: Callum Thomson. Donald Macleod examines the influence on Mahler's music of his wife Alma. |
2014 | 05 LAST | New York | 20140214 | Donald Macleod explores Mahler's final years at the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic. Gustav Mahler rose from humble beginnings on the fringes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to become one of the most powerful figures in the musical establishment. Nowadays his symphonies are almost guaranteed to fill concert halls, but during his lifetime Mahler made his name as a conductor. Mahler left the Vienna Court Opera to take up a lucrative position at the Metropolitan Opera, and later another at the New York Philharmonic. He would spend his final years travelling back and forth across the Atlantic and working on his most ambitious symphonies. A moment of personal crisis would colour the composition of his last work. Symphony No 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) (Part I) Chicago Symphony Orchestra, soloists and choruses, conducted by Georg Solti Mahler, completed Deryck Cooke: Symphony No 10 (1st mvt) (excerpt) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle Symphony No 9 (4th mvt) Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein Producer: Callum Thomson. Donald Macleod explores Gustav Mahler's final years at the Met and New York Philharmonic. |
2017 | 01 | A New Love | 20170626 | Donald Macleod considers Mahler's music and its sometimes troubled relationship to the beautiful Alma, whom he married after a whirlwind courtship. Their relationship wasn't always the happiest, the terms he laid down for their marriage were far from fair, and she wasn't always faithful to her husband. But Alma Mahler exerted a powerful fascination on Gustav Mahler, and proved not only an inspiration but a also a very practical help for his egotistical genius. Alma Schindler, the daughter of a renowned landscape painter, had certainly known other men before she met Gustav Mahler at the house of a mutual friend. Likewise, he had known and loved other women, albeit in the face of his implacably jealous sister Josephine. Alma, called by some the 'most beautiful woman in Vienna', was certainly a catch for the composer. But how big a catch was he for her, who already enjoyed the attentions of her composition teacher Zemlinsky? Gradually, Alma will fall in love with Mahler's music, and agrees to put aside her own efforts at composition. Ging heut Morgen übers Feld Gustav Mahler, piano roll Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo-soprano Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin Riccardo Chailly, conductor Symphony No 4 in G major (1st movement: Bedachtig; 2nd movement: in gem䀀chlicher Bewegung) City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Simon Rattle, conductor Phantasie aus Don Juan; Serenade aus Don Juan Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano Ralf Gothoni, piano. Exploring Mahler's music and its sometimes troubled relationship to Alma Schindler. |
2017 | 02 | Terms Of Engagement | 20170627 | After a brief romance, Mahler wins the hand of Alma Schindler, and they become man and wife. But on what terms? Donald Macleod continues the story of Mahler's marriage to Alma and its relationship to his music. Their relationship wasn't always the happiest, the terms he laid down for their marriage were far from fair, and she wasn't always faithful to her husband. But Alma Mahler exerted a powerful fascination on Gustav, and proved not only an inspiration but a also a very practical support for his working and creative life. In today's episode, the happy couple enjoy a working honeymoon in Moscow, and Alma is privileged to attend the premiere of Mahler's 3rd Symphony, when she truly acknowledges her husband's genius. Liebst du um Sch怀nheit Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, baritone Daniel Barenboim, piano Symphony 3 (4th movt: Sehr langsam, Misterioso; 5th movt: Lustig im Tempo und keck in Ausdruck) Philharmonia Orchestra Sarah Connolly, mezzo-soprano Tiffin Boys' Choir Lorin Maazel, conductor Blicke mir Nicht Um Mitternacht Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo-soprano Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Riccardo Chailly, conductor Symphony 5 (4th movt: Adagietto; 5th movt: Rondo) NDR Sinfonieorchester Klaus Tennstedt, conductor. Donald Macleod focuses on the Mahlers' working honeymoon in Moscow. |
2017 | 03 | Summer With The Mahlers | 20170628 | Gustav Mahler is the blessed with bright children and a beautiful wife. And yet he feels the need to compose music imbued with a profound sense of tragedy. Donald Macleod continues the story of Mahler's marriage to Alma. Their relationship wasn't always the happiest, the terms he laid down for their marriage were far from fair, and she wasn't always faithful to her husband. But Alma Mahler exerted a powerful fascination on Gustav Mahler, and proved not only an inspiration but a also a very practical support for his working and creative life. In today's programme we find Mahler composing extraordinary songs on the deaths of children just hours after kissing and hugging his own daughters. Tempting fate, maybe? Certainly that's what Alma Mahler thought. It's tempting also to see something premonitory about his 6th symphony - The 'Tragic' - which he sketched out at his idyllic summer retreat at Maiernigg on the W怀rthersee during the summer of 1904. And yet it was written at one of the calmest, most serene periods of Mahler's life - and possibly wouldn't have been written at all had Alma not managed to find the manuscript which Gustav had forgotten to bring with him! Nun Will die Sonn' so hell aufgehen (Kindertotenlieder) Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau, baritone Berlin Philharmonic orchestra Rudolf Kempe, conductor Nun se'ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen (Kindertotenlieder) Symphony 6, 1st movt: Allegro; 2nd movt: Scherzo) New York Philharmonic Orchestra Leonard Bernstein, conductor Wenn dein Mutterlein tritt zur Tur herein (Kindertotenlieder) Rudolf Kempe, conductor. Donald Macleod focuses on Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Sixth Symphony. |
2017 | 04 | Death Of A Daughter | 20170629 | The death of their eldest daughter has a profound effect on Gustav and Alma. Donald Macleod continues the story of their marriage, and its relationship to Mahler's music. Their relationship wasn't always the happiest, the terms he laid down for their marriage were far from fair, and she wasn't always faithful to her husband. But Alma Mahler exerted a powerful fascination on Gustav Mahler, and proved not only an inspiration but a also a very practical support for his working and creative life. In today's episode, the event about which Mahler had composed a cycle of songs (Kindertotenlieder or 'songs on the deaths of children') actually happens. The loss of the Mahler's eldest child is a numbing shock, prompting the couple to seek a change of scene as far away as New York. Alma finds consolation in her unhappiness through dancing with the man whom she would eventually marry. And Gustav will open up his heart on the psychiatrist's couch, when he visits Sigmund Freud. Oft denk'ich sie sind nur ausgegangen (Kindertotenlieder) Bryn Terfel, baritone Philharmonia Orchestra Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor Symphony No 7 (4th movement: Nachtlied) Lorin Maazel, conductor Symphony No 1 (2nd movement: Kraftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Rafael Kubelik, conductor Symphony No 8 (Part 1) London Philharmonic Orchestra Klaus Tennstedt, conductor. Donald Macleod explores the consequences of the death of the Mahlers' eldest daughter. |
2017 | 05 LAST | Playing With Numbers | 20170630 | In his late works, Mahler tries to play with numbers and outwit God or Fate. Donald Macleod concludes his account of the marriage between Gustav and Alma, and its effect on the composer's output. Their relationship wasn't always the happiest, the terms he laid down for their marriage were far from fair, and she wasn't always faithful to her husband. But Alma Mahler exerted a powerful fascination on Gustav Mahler, and proved not only an inspiration but a also a very practical support for his working and creative life. In this final episode,Gustav finds musical inspiration in Chinese poetry, and the Mahlers pursue their interest in Chinese culture by visiting a New York opium den. Wracked by guilt over the deep unhappiness that had driven Alma into the arms of the young architect Walter Gropius, Mahler pours out some of his turbulent feelings into the score of his unfinished 10th Symphony - a work over which Alma would maintain a controlling interest after Mahler's death in 1911. Der Einsame (from Das Lied von der Erde) Kathleen Ferrier, contralto Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Bruno Walter, conductor Symphony No 9 (1st movement: Andante comodo) Berlin Philharmonic Claudio Abbado, conductor Mahler, completed by Deryck Cooke: Symphony 10 (4th movement: Scherzo) BBC Philharmonic Gianandrea Noseda, conductor. Donald Macleod explains how Mahler found musical inspiration in Chinese poetry. |
2019 | 01 | Love | 20190923 | Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, love is all around - but for Mahler's wife Alma, it comes at a heavy price. Love is a potent force in Mahler's creative armoury, from the unrequited passion for the soprano Johanna Richter that provided the impulse behind his despairing Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, to the fully requited passion for Alma Schindler that surfaces again and again throughout his work. When Mahler proposed to Alma barely three weeks after their first encounter in November 1901, his friends saw trouble ahead. He was, after all, nearly 20 years her senior - a man at the top of his profession, while she was barely yet a grown-up. Then there was the huge gulf between their personalities and lifestyles - he, work-obsessed and unworldly, she, in the words of Bruno Walter, Mahler's assistant at the Vienna Opera and later his tireless advocate, `a celebrated beauty, used to a brilliant social life`. But more than any of that, Mahler's love came with strings attached: he insisted that if they were to marry, she must give up her own aspirations as a composer and focus herself entirely on his needs. All considered, what could possibly go wrong? Liebst du um Sch怀nheit Christian Gerhaher, baritone Orchestre symphonique de Montr退al Kent Nagano, conductor Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (No 4, Die zwei blauen Augen') Katarina Karn退us, mezzo soprano Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra Susanna M䀀lkki, conductor Wo die sch怀nen Trompeten blasen Dietrich Henschel, baritone Orchestre des Champs-Elys退es Philippe Herreweghe, conductor Symphony No 5 (4th mvt, Adagietto) Philharmonia Orchestra Giuseppe Sinopoli, conductor Symphony No 6 (1st movement, Allegro energico, ma non troppo) Berlin Philharmonic Claudio Abbado, conductor Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales The music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, love is all around - but it comes at a price. |
2019 | 02 | Death | 20190924 | Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, Mahler's obsession with human mortality, which became all too real with the tragic death of his daughter Maria. The death of his beloved younger brother Ernst, less than a month after the boy's thirteenth birthday, hit Mahler hard. Perhaps it marked the beginning of the preoccupation with the fragility of human existence that was to become such a hallmark of his work. It may also have inclined him towards the work of the poet Friedrich Rückert, whose Kindertotenlieder - Songs on the Death of Children - charted, in a cathartic cycle of 428 poems, his alternately despairing and accepting reaction to the death of two of his six children, Luise and, coincidentally, Ernst, in an outbreak of scarlet fever in 1833. You can only imagine Mahler's feelings of guilt when his own young daughter, Maria - Putzi', as he affectionately called her - died from a combination of scarlet fever and diphtheria, just two years after he had finished setting a selection of Rückert's grief-laden verses. Rückert-Lieder (Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen) Kathleen Ferrier, contralto Vienna Philharmonic Bruno Walter, conductor Symphony No 4 (2nd movement, In gem䀀chlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast) San Francisco Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor Kindertotenlieder (Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n) Janet Baker, mezzo soprano Hall退 Orchestra John Barbirolli, conductor Symphony No 6 (4th movement, Finale. Allegro moderato - Allegro energico) Pierre Boulez, conductor Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales The music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, Mahler's obsession with human mortality. |
2019 | 03 | God | 20190925 | Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, Mahler's ambivalent relationship to religion. Mahler is often quoted as declaring himself `thrice homeless - as a native of Bohemia in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, as a Jew throughout the world - always an intruder, never welcomed.` But while he may have been culturally Jewish he certainly wasn't devoutly observant, and he wore his Judaism lightly enough to have no problem with converting to Catholicism when it suited him for professional purposes - in 1897 he was offered the directorship of the Vienna Court Opera, but only on condition that he switched faiths. When his friend the set designer Alfred Roller suggested that he compose a mass to celebrate his conversion, Mahler responded that he could write every movement except the Credo. But despite his lack of adherence to a particular creed, Mahler's work is shot through with a genuine religious sense, from the Second Symphony's epic depiction of the Day of Judgement to the existential angst of the Tenth Symphony's Purgatorio movement, via the childlike vision of heaven that brings the Fourth Symphony to a close, and the Eighth Symphony's decidedly ecumenical pairing of the Pentecost hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus' with the closing scene from Part 2 of Goethe's Faust, whose concluding Chorus Mysticus' celebrates the Eternal Feminine. Symphony No 8 (Part 1, extract - Veni creator spiritus') Wiener S䀀ngerknaben Wiener Singverein Wiener Staatsopernchor Chicago Symphony Orchestra Georg Solti, conductor Symphony No 4 (4th movement, Sehr behaglich) Miah Persson, soprano Budapest Festival Orchestra Ivကn Fischer, conductor Symphony No 10 (3rd movement, Purgatorio - Unheimlich bewegt) Vienna Philharmonic Daniel Harding, conductor Symphony No 2 (Resurrection') (5th movement, Finale) Arleen Aug退r, soprano Janet Baker, mezzo soprano City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Simon Rattle, conductor Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales The music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, his ambivalent relationship to religion. |
2019 | 04 | The Grotesque | 20190926 | Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, the vein of tart humour in Mahler's music. In the summer of 1910, with his personal life in turmoil, Mahler visited the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud for a consultation. Years later, Freud recalled that Mahler had related to him an incident from his childhood, in which he had run from the house to escape a particularly acrimonious confrontation between his parents. As he emerged onto the street, a hurdy-gurdy happened to be grinding out the popular Viennese song, Ach, du lieber Augustin', from which point on, according to Freud's recollection of Mahler's account, `high tragedy and light amusement` became inextricably fused in his mind. Whether or not that specific incident was the wellspring, there's a strong strain of the sardonic, the ironic and the out-and-out grotesque running through Mahler's entire output. Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt) Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo soprano Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin Riccardo Chailly, conductor Symphony No 1 in D (Titan') (3rd movement, Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen) Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Rafael Kubelik, conductor Symphony No 2 (3rd movement, In ruhig fliessender Bewegung) London Philharmonic Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski, conductor Symphony No 7 (3rd movement, Scherzo: Schatternhaft) SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg Michael Gielen, conductor Symphony No 9 (3rd movement, Rondo-Burleske) Berlin Philharmonic Leonard Bernstein, conductor Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales |
2019 | 05 LAST | Nature | 20190927 | Donald Macleod explores the music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, how his profound love of the natural world seeped into almost everything he wrote. `It always seems strange to me that most people, when they talk about nature, can think only of flowers, little birds, forest fragrance, and so on. No one mentions the god Dionysus or the great Pan. There, now you have an idea of how I make music - always and everywhere, only the sound of nature!` That was Mahler writing to a friend shortly after he had finished work on his Third Symphony, and he wasn't just expressing himself figuratively. He seemed to wrest his music from the natural scenery that provided his favourite composing environments - like the rolling meadows and angular mountain peaks surrounding Toblach, high up in the Dolomites, where he composed Das Lied von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony, and embarked on what was to be the unfinished Tenth. Lieder und ges䀀nge aus Jugendzeit (Abl怀sung im Sommer) Karita Mattila, soprano Ilmo Ranta, piano Symphony No 3 (3rd movement, Comodo) London Symphony Orchestra Jascha Horenstein, conductor Das Lied von der Erde (6. Der Abschied) Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo soprano Berlin Philharmonic Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales The music and life of Gustav Mahler. Today, Mahler's profound love of the natural world. |