Mahler's 9th Symphony - A first listening

I finally managed to pick myself up and have the courage to listen to this critic-branded 'earth-shattering' symphony. It wasn't earth-shattering for me at the moment, a problem that I always have with Mahler's music. For the recording, I picked to listen to Karajan's famous 1982-live recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Verdict:
The first movement was fantastic up until around the half-way mark, where the climax of the orchestra was really frightening. I had goosebumps all over me during this period and I'm sure everybody would too. After that, I expected more development but only to be disappointed with the music turning calm and calmer till the end of the movement. The very end of this movement has a very unique note, that for some unexplainable reason, sticks to me. Listen to it yourself and you'll see what I am talking about.

The second movement started out as a dance, but then it's not so dance like anymore. It kinda reminded me of the Scherzo of his 2nd symphony.

The third movement was the one that impressed me the best - it's very much like an orchestra showpiece. But the music itself sounded sarcastic from the very first note till the last note. I guess that's what it intended to sound like as Mahler wrote this movement as 'Rondo Burleske'.

The last movement moved me, close to tears, but right now the top slow movement of Mahler for me is still the slow movement of his sixth symphony. It is widely recognised as the acceptance of death, parting to this world. Perhaps, being a young man, death is something that I haven't thought much yet. I have the same problems with another movement of Mahler that supposedly meaning 'farewell to the earth' - the last movement of Das Lied von Der Erde. I can understand it musically, I gain something out of the movement, but I still cannot view this movement as how it is supposed to represent. Maybe this is just the naive side of me that have not had the slightest idea yet how to accept fate that is coming to you.

Conclusion: nothing to conclude but to listen to it again! I have Bernstein's, Abbado's and Walter's recording of this symphony and it should be interesting to compare the performance of each recordings. Hopefully one of them can help me understand the last movement better, so that I'll gain more out of it than what I gained of it at the moment.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 14 June 2008 - Emanuel Ax Plays Chopin

Featuring:
- Frank Bridge The Sea
- Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2
- Sibelius Symphony No. 5

Emanuel Ax - Piano
Robin Ticciati - Conductor

As the concert title suggests, the main dish of the concert is the Chopin's second piano concerto and that's the very reason why I chose to subscribe to this concert.

The second piano concerto is actually not my favourite piano concerto of Chopin - I very much prefer the first piano concerto -, but the slow movement of the first piano concerto cannot beat the elegant and the beauty of the first opening bars for the piano of the second piano concerto where the famous gorgeous melody lines are played.

2 weeks before the concert, I found out that Emmnuel Ax would be giving a recital in ANAM. The program announced are very interesting, Schubert's Impromptus D. 935, the Sonata in A major, D. 664 and some Chopin works. On the night of the recital, I've felt a bit disappointed when I found out that there was no Chopin pieces in the program and to my further disappointment, Chopin's place is replaced by Liszt - which I am not a big fan of. Nevertheless, the concert was marvelous and the highlight of the concert for me is the A major sonata. I practically smiled throughout the last movement. The dance-like theme in that movement makes me very happy. Emanuel Ax plays brilliantly and the most wonderful thing is, he made Liszt to be at least tolerable to me. His rendition of Mephisto Waltz is almost scary, he really made light of that supposedly difficult piece. In the end, he gave two Chopin's pieces which I am not familiar with, but it was played with such restraints and when the pieces ended, some audience were left sighing and muttered the word 'beautiful'.

Back to today's concert, the concert started with a orchestral piece by Frank Bridge The Sea(MSO really keeps its 'The Voice of the Sea' theme throughout this season). The piece was better than I expected. An impressionist piece, very much like Debussy's La Mer, it actually never bores me. The first movement - Seascape - contains a very delicate dialogue between the oboes and clarinets that interest me very much. The second movement, - Sea-foam - is a scherzo like movement, that again included wonderful passages for the woodwinds. In the third movement, - Moonlight -, the harp player shone. The finale - Storm - is a musical depiction of what would happen if you ever saw a storm in the sea. This movement is illustrated with furious passage in the orchestra, with the percussion - timpani and bass drum provides the additional dramatic scene. A good memorable piece by Frank Bridge.

Next is the second piano concerto by Chopin. I was not affected very much of the music by the first movement (as always been the case), but the music sounded right, so I would say the orchestra and soloist played this movement in the way that how it is supposed to be played. I paid my fullest attention to the opening bars of the second movement just to capture that gorgeous melodies that I've mentioned above. And moments later, the moment came. It was marvelous and I've always been and will be affected by it. The rest of the second movement was gorgeous as well. I always feel disappointed with the orchestration of the finale, somehow, the orchestration just doesn't work. So, I have no comment on it apart from the piano part. The playing is so fine, my heart was actually racing at the very last part of the finale. Loud applause followed and we were given an encore - Nocture in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1.

The gem of this concert - at least for me, because everybody just seemed cannot put the Chopin out of their head - is Sibelius' 5th Symphony. I gave it my first listening last night and it didn't disappoint. And it became much more when I heard it in the concert hall today. I still struggled in the complicated first movement, but the end of this movement is just fantastic. The second movement was played very delicately by the orchestra and I enjoyed the little variation that's going on in it. The finale was intense and arousing. The famous horn line is just wonderful. I had it in my head for at least 2 hours after the concert. It's so gorgeous, depicting 16 swans taking off to the sky at the same time. What a sight it must be for Sibelius when he witnessed it. The very end of the movement was just wonderful. Huge applause from the audience.

A word about the conductor: he's just 25 years of age.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 24 November 2007 - Sir Charles Returns

Featuring:
- Richard Wagner Tannhauser: Overture and Venusberg Music
- Antonin Dvorak Serenade for Strings
- Frederick Delius A Village Romeo and Juliet: The Walk to the Paradise Garden
- Edward Elgar Enigma Variations

Sir Charles Mackerras - Conductor

First post after what seems like forever! Thesis and exams have been distracting me between my last post to now. I've completed my thesis near the end of October and the exams were over on Monday earlier this week. Hopefully, I will have more time to write what new works that I've discovered in between this period sometimes later.

Now for the concert itself. It started with Wagner's music. And it did not disappoint. The famous Tannhauser overture is brilliantly executed. Those ff passages were really hair-raising. The Venusberg music is in contrast in terms of dynamics to the overture. Lovely melodies throughout this piece and the first program ends wonderfully.

The second program - Dvorak's Serenade for Strings - is the reason why I attended this concert. Full of wonderful melodies throughout the entire piece, I fell in love in the first time with the haunting opening melodies of the first movement. The piece was taken slightly faster than what I'm used to, but the charm of the melodies is still there. The waltz in the second movement were also brilliant. The third movement was also well done. The audience applauded after this movement, presuming the brilliant finish in the end of this movement to be the end of the piece. Afterwards, the lovely fourth movement was played and almost without pause, the Presto passages in the final movement were now in action. By the end of this piece, I know that it already made my night.

After the interval, we were then given Delius' music. Not very familiar with his music, I found his music is okay-ish. The melody of the piece was gorgeous, but forgettable. The piece itself was a typical music describing the love between the two characters in the story. Again, it was really well played and probably it's just me who was not very impressed with the composition of the music.

The last piece, Enigma variations was wonderful also. Specifically, I'm pretty sure the Nimrod variation touched every audience's heart. Some other variations that made quite an impression to me were the Ysobel and Dorabella variations with the orchestra principal violist shone during the Ysobel variation.

Now the conductor himself, Sir Charles Mackerras. He looks very old and his age has really slowed him down. His conducting was still full of energy and although he required no baton for all of tonight's program, he never lost control of orchestra's discipline. Long applause from the audience showed how tonight's music has pleased them. I just hope that this is not the last time I see him on the conductor podium.

To conclude, a memorable night with lots of wonderful melodies and a chance to see a world-class in action is icing on the cake.

Next concert: Tchaikovsky's first and sixth symphonies.

First post!

First post for hopefully long-time running blog of me finding new piece out of tons of classical music out there and learning to love them.

Currently listening to Felix Mendelssohn's - Symphony No. 3 'Scottish'.