The first of many You Tube Mahler interviews that has touched me personally. I am a visual artist, drawing and painting. Tilson Thomas' description of Mahler's "hitting a wall" and them moving on to a resolution is an apt description of my process and I assume everyone seeking to describe the human condition.
All of the UE Mahler interviews are excellent. Thank you for making them available here. MTT is particularly articulate and "simpático". I don't know if you could call him a "disciple" of Bernstein, but he certainly has that wonderful ability to commuicate his enthusiam for the music.
how come in this interview he says mahler was close to suicide while talking about writing the 6th while in another video esa pekka salon says he was actually at the happiest stage of his life when he wrote the sixth?
I've downloaded this interview, so that it's possible to share his feeling and view about Mahler again and again. I love Mahler's musik and MTT for his achievements.
He is talking about the last movement of the 7th, here's the full paragraph as it appears in the book: “In all of Mahler’s music I can think of a few places which just don’t add up, no matter what. One of these is the end of the song Um Mitternacht [At Midnight]; no matter how hard you try to figure out a relationship, you have to really work at it. Another one, which I think works much better once you’ve decided that’s the way it is - is the last movement of the 7th, which I so love. But I struggle and, my God, I’ve seen many of my colleagues struggle to figure out some way that this relates to this, relates to that, and I think that really imprisons the music. I think the idea of that movement is very much ‘discontinuity’. It’s like it anticipates techniques in film or in sound editing, of just, Jump! Cut! Bang!”
Thank you for citation. - To me, Michael Tilson Thomas doesn't understand Mahler or even misunderstand him. Why does he want to create profund relationships where there are none instead of simply being led by Mahler's music and experiencing it? E.g. there is the profound "O Mensch" right next to the playful "Bim-bam" and only that's all why the two songs have a connection. As in life too, where profound changes to playfulness without transition.
This is all very good, but I am not sure about the detail of Mahler being suicidal during the composition of the Sixth. In fact, what is truly uncanny about the Sixth and Kindertotenlieder, from what I have read, is that that he was in one of the most productive and positive periods of his life. He was a new father, his tenure at the Vienna Court Opera was going very well. He never wrote such tragic music again, even after the death of his daughter. It's biographically mysterious.
I think that a lot has been written in retrospect. In fact, he said about the Kindertotenlieder he had composed them because children did not have their own songs of death. After his daughter's death, his wife Alma accused him of having provoked the death of his daughter with the Kindertotenliedern.
There are two questions I wish all of these conductors were asked... 1. What order do you place the two middle movements of the Sixth Symphony and why? (my preference is scherzo-adagio)2. What is your opinion of the performance version of the Tenth Symphony and do or will you ever program it? (Rattle, thank goodness is an advocate of it, but I do wonder what some of these other conductors think).
My introduction to Mahler was a recording of the Ninth Symphony . I played it to death . 1960s Sir John Barbirolli . Berlin Philharmonic . I was 15
The first of many You Tube Mahler interviews that has touched me personally. I am a visual artist, drawing and painting. Tilson Thomas' description of Mahler's "hitting a wall" and them moving on to a resolution is an apt description of my process and I assume everyone seeking to describe the human condition.
I love your enthusiasm talking about Mahler.
All of the UE Mahler interviews are excellent. Thank you for making them available here. MTT is particularly articulate and "simpático". I don't know if you could call him a "disciple" of Bernstein, but he certainly has that wonderful ability to commuicate his enthusiam for the music.
A really wonderful interview! Thank you for sharing!
how come in this interview he says mahler was close to suicide while talking about writing the 6th while in another video esa pekka salon says he was actually at the happiest stage of his life when he wrote the sixth?
Good question! Jonathan Carr's The Real Mahler is good at undoing some of the Mahler myths.
@@UlfilasNZ Cheers. I'll have a look. :)
GREAT INTERVIEW!
I've downloaded this interview, so that it's possible to share his feeling and view about Mahler again and again. I love Mahler's musik and MTT for his achievements.
Funny, that's exactly how I first heard Mahler, and fell in love with his music - when I heard Abschied.
Anyone know which movement he's talking about at 10:50? The one with the "jump cuts".
Sorry, no. Sometimes I recognize the Mahler of whom he speaks (sings), sometimes not.
He is talking about the last movement of the 7th, here's the full paragraph as it appears in the book:
“In all of Mahler’s music I can think of a few places which just don’t add up, no matter what. One of these is the end of the song Um Mitternacht [At Midnight]; no matter how hard you try to figure out a relationship, you have to really work at it. Another one, which I think works much better once you’ve decided that’s the way it is - is the last movement of the 7th, which I so love. But I struggle and, my God, I’ve seen many of my colleagues struggle to figure out some way that this relates to this, relates to that, and I think that really imprisons the music. I think the idea of that movement is very much ‘discontinuity’. It’s like it anticipates techniques in film or in sound editing, of just, Jump! Cut! Bang!”
Thank you for citation. - To me, Michael Tilson Thomas doesn't understand Mahler or even misunderstand him. Why does he want to create profund relationships where there are none instead of simply being led by Mahler's music and experiencing it? E.g. there is the profound "O Mensch" right next to the playful "Bim-bam" and only that's all why the two songs have a connection. As in life too, where profound changes to playfulness without transition.
This is all very good, but I am not sure about the detail of Mahler being suicidal during the composition of the Sixth. In fact, what is truly uncanny about the Sixth and Kindertotenlieder, from what I have read, is that that he was in one of the most productive and positive periods of his life. He was a new father, his tenure at the Vienna Court Opera was going very well. He never wrote such tragic music again, even after the death of his daughter. It's biographically mysterious.
I think that a lot has been written in retrospect. In fact, he said about the Kindertotenlieder he had composed them because children did not have their own songs of death. After his daughter's death, his wife Alma accused him of having provoked the death of his daughter with the Kindertotenliedern.
That's great "....pursuing Schubert's goals with Wagner's techniques"
I like MTT, he is great person 👏
He is still such a hippie. Love him
There are two questions I wish all of these conductors were asked...
1. What order do you place the two middle movements of the Sixth Symphony and why? (my preference is scherzo-adagio)2. What is your opinion of the performance version of the Tenth Symphony and do or will you ever program it? (Rattle, thank goodness is an advocate of it, but I do wonder what some of these other conductors think).
❤️