Gustav Mahler: Mirror of the soul

by Petar PLAMENOV

9 June (Thursday), 19:00
Seventh festival of arts Boris Hristov
Boris Hristov Music Center
Address:
Sofia, 43 Tzar Samuil Str.
Phone: 02 987 35 92

Concert on the occasion of 100 anniversary of the composer Gustav Mahler
CAST: Plamen Beykov [bass], God Petrova [piano]

Gustav Mahler (1860 Kalischt/Moravia - 1911 Vienna) is a famous Austrian composer who is best known for his Das Lied von der Erde. Over his lifetime, Mahler composed many various Symphonies, and his emotional and personal music. He began from the German tradition of music, which was rooted in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and the "Vienna School" of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and incorporated the Romantic generation of composers, such as Schumann and Mendelssohn. However, the decisive influence on his work was Richard Wagner who, he said, after Beethoven was the only composer to truly have "development" in his music.

Perfectionism was characteristic for Gustav Mahler's way of living  as well as the joy of pure sensuality, when as the director of the opera he thinks about family but at the same time composes Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) (1900-1905). He conveys borderline emotional experiences in his song Nun with chromaticism, relentless shifting back and forth or repetition, completely in the spirit of the Fin de siŠcle. He does justice to the cruelty of Fate in all its nuances, whether in his melodic construction or in the timbre of the vocal part which sometimes almost seems to be an instrument. 



Мahler was obsessed with death and dying, and vexed by every other aspect of his life from daily diet to lack of fitness to the mystical significance of numbers. The end of humanity was also a favorite topic of conversation for the composer. His first symphony took a protracted 15 years to complete and represented his internal chaos in its full spectrum. Hushed, harmonic meanderings smashed into orchestral shrieks without warning. He so feared dying after his 9th symphony, as his idol Beethoven had, that after his 8th was complete, he chose not to number it. He never completed his 10th, therein realizing his premonition.

This resulted in a view of his music as "hyper-emotional" for a long time after his death, and even extreme. And it is certainly true that he restlessly searched for ways of extending symphonic expression - but he was also an ardent craftsman, which shows in his meticulous working methods, and careful planning of works, as well as his studies of previous composers. Mahler's pivotal role in what followed made him, in some respects, the Haydn of modern music. His compositions had a tremendous impact on Schoenberg, Webern, and Berg immediately, as well as the conductors Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer - both of whom worked with Mahler and were helped in their careers by him, and would take his music to America, where it would influence Hollywood film composition. He was also an influence on Erich Korngold and on his friend and contemporary Richard Strauss as well as the early symphonies of Havergal Brian.

Прочети цялата новина

Свързани новини: