Mahler's Resurrection
This is based on a lecture given by our wonderful musicologist Brenda Miller, who is so amazingly knowledgeable and enthusiastic. This time she featured Mahler's 2nd Symphony, "The Resurrection," which not only was a musical tour de force, but engendered great stories about Mahler, his Jewish origins, and about Leonard Bernstein and Otto Klemperer, the famed conducters of Mahler.
It is well known that Mahler, although now considered a musical genius, had been largely ignored in the Germanic countries where he lived and worked in the nineteenth century. That this was due to anti-Semitism is clear, since he was one of the "Jewish" composers banned by Hitler, even though he had as a child been baptized a Catholic. During his life he was constantly criticized that his music and/or his conducting were "too Jewish," and he experienced constant anti-Semitism and was dismissed as a minor figure. It was Leonard Berstein who re-discovered him, and by constantly playing his symphonies and providing detailed musicological analysis of his work, showed the level of his genius.
It is true that Mahler's work is difficult and considered to be "heavy." That this was due to his depressive personality is understandable, as he was throughout his life torn between his Jewishness, although he had effectively no Jewish content in his life, and his suffering as a result of it. Mahler was obsessed with death and the mystery and meaning of life.
He was born in Moravia in 1867 and grew up in utter poverty. His father was a brutal man who constantly beat his children (shades of Beethoven). When Gustav was nine his father converted the whole family, and since they lived close to the Church, little Gustav was recruited to the choir and was given free music lessons. He also lived close to the Army barracks and all day long he could hear the sound of marching feet. These two early experiences definitely reoccur in his music.
From an early age Mahler became familiar with German folk-songs, and he used some of these and made up others of his own based on the themes familiar to him from his early childhood. In effect Mahler's music was coded auto-biography (this is similar to Shostakovich who was forced to dissimulate by Stalin, and who admired Mahler's music).Mahler's second Symphony, the Resurrection, written in 1893, was superficially thought to have a Christian theme, but actually as Bernstein has pointed out, there is no mention of Jesus in it, and the key to the "Resurrection" is in fact a very Jewish interpretation. It was as if Mahler wore a Christan coat on the outside, but inside remained Jewish.
In 1897 after much struggle he became artistic director of the Imperial Opera in Vienna. Mahler's music has been considered unapproachable due to its complexity, its heavy themes of death and the meaning of life, and the length of his Symphonies. In fact, the Resurrection Symphony starts with a 20 min funeral march, followed by a very complex alternation between "heaven" and "hell." But in fact Mahler was very sardonic, and although he loved the Christian concept of heaven (if only it could be), much of his music, including the whole final movement of the Resurrection Symphony, is meant be to humorous and even mocking (depending on how you interpret it). It was Leonard Bernstein's unlikely tenure as Conductor of the Vienna State Orchestra that enabled him to reacquaint this orchestra and the Viennese with one of their greatest musicians.
It is impossible here to even suggest the complexity of the music itself and bravo to Brenda for being able to explain it (with the aid of her wonderful charts, with arrows crossing each other every which way).
I want to end with this thought, all the following great German musicians were Jews who converted to Christianity: Mendelssohn, Mahler, Klemperer and Schoenberg. Of them the last two converted back, but all of them expressed their Jewish souls through their music, and the Germans could not forgive them for this.
It is well known that Mahler, although now considered a musical genius, had been largely ignored in the Germanic countries where he lived and worked in the nineteenth century. That this was due to anti-Semitism is clear, since he was one of the "Jewish" composers banned by Hitler, even though he had as a child been baptized a Catholic. During his life he was constantly criticized that his music and/or his conducting were "too Jewish," and he experienced constant anti-Semitism and was dismissed as a minor figure. It was Leonard Berstein who re-discovered him, and by constantly playing his symphonies and providing detailed musicological analysis of his work, showed the level of his genius.
It is true that Mahler's work is difficult and considered to be "heavy." That this was due to his depressive personality is understandable, as he was throughout his life torn between his Jewishness, although he had effectively no Jewish content in his life, and his suffering as a result of it. Mahler was obsessed with death and the mystery and meaning of life.
He was born in Moravia in 1867 and grew up in utter poverty. His father was a brutal man who constantly beat his children (shades of Beethoven). When Gustav was nine his father converted the whole family, and since they lived close to the Church, little Gustav was recruited to the choir and was given free music lessons. He also lived close to the Army barracks and all day long he could hear the sound of marching feet. These two early experiences definitely reoccur in his music.
From an early age Mahler became familiar with German folk-songs, and he used some of these and made up others of his own based on the themes familiar to him from his early childhood. In effect Mahler's music was coded auto-biography (this is similar to Shostakovich who was forced to dissimulate by Stalin, and who admired Mahler's music).Mahler's second Symphony, the Resurrection, written in 1893, was superficially thought to have a Christian theme, but actually as Bernstein has pointed out, there is no mention of Jesus in it, and the key to the "Resurrection" is in fact a very Jewish interpretation. It was as if Mahler wore a Christan coat on the outside, but inside remained Jewish.
In 1897 after much struggle he became artistic director of the Imperial Opera in Vienna. Mahler's music has been considered unapproachable due to its complexity, its heavy themes of death and the meaning of life, and the length of his Symphonies. In fact, the Resurrection Symphony starts with a 20 min funeral march, followed by a very complex alternation between "heaven" and "hell." But in fact Mahler was very sardonic, and although he loved the Christian concept of heaven (if only it could be), much of his music, including the whole final movement of the Resurrection Symphony, is meant be to humorous and even mocking (depending on how you interpret it). It was Leonard Bernstein's unlikely tenure as Conductor of the Vienna State Orchestra that enabled him to reacquaint this orchestra and the Viennese with one of their greatest musicians.
It is impossible here to even suggest the complexity of the music itself and bravo to Brenda for being able to explain it (with the aid of her wonderful charts, with arrows crossing each other every which way).
I want to end with this thought, all the following great German musicians were Jews who converted to Christianity: Mendelssohn, Mahler, Klemperer and Schoenberg. Of them the last two converted back, but all of them expressed their Jewish souls through their music, and the Germans could not forgive them for this.
posted by Jack Cohen at 5:41 PM
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