Nine Mahler Symphonies...

[00:00:01][music] [music] >> Welcome to one of the most original and fascinating of all composers, Gustav Mahler. A late romantic beloved by late romantics and modernists alike, Mahler is truly special. Most celebrated for his nine symphonies, today we're going to rank those symphonies because that gives me a structure with which to discuss these works and believe me, there is so much to talk about.

[00:00:37]Including two aspects of Mahler's music I'd like to drill down on first because they're both used as criticisms of the composer but are in fact qualities.

[00:00:46]They're [music] reasons Mahler's music sounds the way it does. Firstly, Mahler is neurotic. He was himself highly neurotic, but you can hear it in his music as well. A quality I'd like to call sonic neuroticism.

[00:01:05]>> [music] >> The style can constantly shift and transform from deep tragedy to sarcastic pomp to frenetic energy to weary death march.

[00:01:21]>> [music] >> You name the emotion and Mahler will put it into music before rushing off again into another emotion. As he himself said, "I used to possess certainty, but I lost it again. I will regain it tomorrow and I will lose it once more the day after."

[00:01:38]>> [music] >> And it's not just rushing between emotions. Mahler can often combine tones together, tragedy with comedy, innocence with terror, the monumental with the insignificant. There's often a delightful ambiguity with Mahler's music. This sonic neuroticism actually sets Mahler's music up perfectly to take us into the 20th century. Yes, Mahler was neurotic, but so was Jewish culture, so was turn-of-the-century Vienna, and so was Europe as it moved into the 20th century. It's really quite remarkable.

[00:02:12]The personality of great composers often does match with their times, which is part of the reason why they become great in their particular age. For example, classical music demands classical music of the period that is >> [music] >> demands pleasure and charm, and who better than Mozart and Haydn to be pleasant and charming?

[00:02:31]>> [music] >> Then we move to romanticism, and what better personality to mark that shift into more emotional music than a rather irate Ludwig van Beethoven?

[00:02:43]So, when we move into the tension and unpredictability of 20th century music, Mahler, with his sonic neuroticism, is the perfect man to take us there.

[00:02:53]The second Mahlerian issue is the length and size of his music, his long-windedness and gigantism. I mean, just to listen to all nine of his symphonies will take you somewhere around 11 hours, double the time it takes to digest the nine symphonies of my last subject of these videos, Dvořák.

[00:03:11]But then, as Bernstein said, Mahler is music about everything, >> [music] >> and presumably everything takes a while to do. In Mahler's own words to Sibelius, a symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything. Well, if not everything, Mahler's symphonies do contain an awful lot. However, Mahler's symphonies might be long, but they are the right length for the material. There's no sense of stretching or dragging things out. Yes, the symphonies are long, but that's because there's a lot in them, and in my own experience, the sections of Mahler that at first sound long and protracted and difficult usually open up after repeated attempts. Mahler really does reward the attention. This is also a composer that understands the orchestra and understands the symphony. Mahler was a great conductor, possibly the greatest living conductor of his time, and he was a great conductor before being a composer. And I think this is often forgotten, but Mahler was mostly a conductor of opera, and he brought an operatic sensibility to his symphonies, not just by introducing plenty of singing, but also by introducing plenty of drama.

[00:04:24]>> [music] [music] [music] >> All of which means this is a composer who knows the orchestra inside out, who knows [music] the instruments inside out. This is a composer who knows how to make a symphony orchestra make noise. He is the conductor's composer. So, no surprise, those other conductor composers, like Boulez and Bernstein, adored Mahler, which means we should watch, or should that be listen out for interesting orchestration, like the use of solo instruments. Every Mahler symphony showcases solos from instruments within their sections.

[00:05:15]>> [music] [music] >> Mahler symphonies are full of brilliant understanding of orchestral sonics, like those offstage brass you hear towards the end of the second symphony.

[00:05:35]Mahler puts the brass out there to represent distance for his judgment day, but it does something else. The distant sound narrows and flattens our oral perceptions, acting like a of oral palate cleanser.

[00:05:54]So that when the choir [music] comes in, it sounds all the fuller, deeper, and richer.

[00:06:00]>> [music] >> Mahler's music is full of this rich understanding of orchestral sonics. And it's not just the orchestra. Mahler is also a master of the art form known as the symphony. Bear in mind, composers used to do everything. That's your Handel or your Mozart. They could do opera, orchestral, church music, whatever you wanted. But >> [music] >> as music became more technical, and that's especially as we head into the 19th century, specialization starts to appear more frequently. Chopin just really does piano. Wagner just does operas. Wolf just does songs. Strauss just does waltzes. [music] And for Mahler, it's the symphony. What's more, as a conductor, Mahler could hear and then edit his work continually. All of the eight symphonies which he premiered were later reworked, often extensively, which means he was using live performance of his works [music] as an acoustic testing ground, and then reworking them to sound better. And quite honestly, if you love the sound music makes, you should love Mahler. A couple of quick bits of housekeeping.

[00:07:12]Firstly, please do not consider these rankings as authoritative. My views on these works have changed considerably over the years, and indeed, they changed whilst I was making this video. Mahler's symphonies are gargantuan beasts, and I'm fully prepared to admit that if one of his symphonies isn't working for me now, and there is one that isn't, it might well be my favorite symphony in 10 years time. Secondly, I'm only commenting on his nine symphonies.

[00:07:36]According to many, Das Lied von der Erde should count as a symphony in itself, including Lenny Bernstein, who said it was Mahler's greatest symphony. Mahler wrote the work after Symphony No. 8, but he was so suspicious about the curse of the Ninth Symphony, that's the idea that you're going to die after writing your Ninth Symphony. He was so suspicious of the curse of the Ninth that he didn't actually give this work a symphonic number. Cue, of course, Olympian-level comic irony. Mahler writes his Ninth and then dies in the middle of composing his 10th, which proved the curse he was trying so hard to avoid. So, Mahler didn't include Das Lied von der Erde, and neither will I. Okay, let's turn to the symphonies, of which I'm an almost total fan. There's only one work I'm not totally sold on, and eight nailed-on masterpieces that are honestly hard to rank because of how good they all are, but we're going in order, my order. So, starting with my least loved, >> [music] >> welcome to the one single Mahler symphony that still baffles [music] me.

[00:08:42]All those negative cliches about Mahler, his impenetrability and long-winded gloominess, I can still apply to this work. Now, a couple of things. Firstly, I've changed my opinions about Mahler's symphonies before, so I'm wise enough to realize that my problems with the Seventh are probably my own. Indeed, they may even be related to a performance I saw of this work just when I was first getting into classical music in my late teens. At this time, I knew hardly any classical music, but this work contained one familiar section, which was used in an advert when I was a kid.

[00:09:16]>> It is straight.

[00:09:18]Square.

[00:09:19]>> So, 10 years after loving this advert as a kid, off I popped to a performance, standing room only, on my feet on a hot day. It felt like hours. God, I was bored. Looking back, it may have been the performance. Of all composers, I think the conductor is most important for Mahler. His music can sound so different under different batons. Even so, from this inauspicious introduction right up to this day, the Seventh has remained my least preferred Mahler symphony. Sorry. Now, it's still a great symphonic work, no doubt, but for me at least, it's a little odd, enigmatic, elliptic. It seems to take you down avenues that don't go anywhere. The music is unsettled and restless, like a lot of nocturnal noodling. Note, two of the movements are named Night Music, and indeed, sometimes the work feels a little like a nighttime fever dream.

[00:10:11]>> [music] >> There's plenty of individual brilliance in the work, there always is with Mahler, but does the whole thing quite add up? Jury's still out for me, and I would note that this symphony is the least recorded of all the nine, so I may not be alone. I'd also note this symphony is the favorite of modernists like Schoenberg and Boulez. I.e., the Seventh may be Mahler's most modernist symphony, which may be another reason I'm not wholly enamored with it. So, the Seventh in last place is a pretty easy pick for me, although as I said, I reserve the right to change my mind in 10 years' time. Okay, next up, a mighty work that might be just a tad too mighty.

[00:10:55]>> [music] >> Known as the Symphony of a Thousand, presumably because you need that number to perform it, as in this 1910 cartoon showing someone explaining to Mahler there's no one left in the audience cuz everyone's needed on stage to perform the work. There is an aesthetic issue that I briefly touched on earlier, and that's the problem of gigantism. Is there an instinct in Mahler to outdo himself by going bigger? Now, that's an instinct that mostly serves him well, but is this the work where he he have gone too far.

[00:11:36]That's certainly not the view of Mahler himself, who thought the Eighth was his greatest work, even proudly calling it his gift to the nation. And it is an amazing work. There's still lots of glorious passages, but it does lay everything on very thick. Sections are beautiful, of course, but the whole work, despite all the immensity of everything, for me lacks drama. It doesn't quite earn its highs. Mahler's Second and his Fifth, they have wonderful highs, but those highs come after struggle. They feel earned. The highs in the Eighth come a little too easy. Again, I may not be totally alone here. This symphony is the least performed of all nine. Although, there's obviously practical reasons with staging such a colossal work.

[00:12:22]>> [music] >> I can't quite believe I'm putting such a marvelous work so low. Another sign not to take ranking videos too seriously.

[00:12:33]Mahler's Fourth Symphony is an absolute pleasure. And if you don't know Mahler, I'd say this is a really great place to start.

[00:12:45]My only tiny quibble is a slightly underwhelming slow movement, but everything else is a total joy, including a wonderful final movement.

[00:13:00]Mahler wrote this relatively tight work after his colossal number three. And in many [music] ways, this symphony is a reaction against that Third Symphony.

[00:13:09]It's whimsical, approachable, friendly, neoclassical. This is the first of his symphonies to fit the form of a classic four-movement symphony. And note, gentle viewer, Symphony 1 may have four movements now, but it was originally composed with five. And Symphony Number 4 is Mahler's shortest symphony. Indeed, with this work, Mahler didn't originally intend to write a symphony at all. In his own words, "I only wanted to write a humoresque, but out of it came a symphony of normal dimensions. Whereas earlier, what I imagined would be a symphony, turned out in my second and third to be three times the normal length." Hmm, talking of long third symphonies.

[00:13:49]>> [music] [music] >> You want long Mahler? Here comes the third, his longest, with the first movement longer than most symphonies in their entirety. That first movement, it's not just a march, it's an entire journey. The symphony isn't just long, it's also [music] large. Yes, that's eight horns Mahler's using there.

[00:14:15]There's thought and philosophy behind the work. Mahler initially conceived it as a musical version of Nietzsche's Gay Science, [music] but he moved towards a vaguer scheme about progressing from the low base nature and working our way up towards the heavens. In Mahler's own words, "It begins with inanimate nature and progresses to God's love. People will need time to crack the nuts that I am shaking down from this tree for them." Lesson here, this is a work I found impenetrable 20 years ago, but which I love increasingly. And rather strangely for one of Mahler's works, the public loved the premiere, giving it a thunderous 50-minute standing ovation.

[00:14:52]People apparently adored the final slow movement, which critics after the 1902 premiere called the greatest adagio since Beethoven's seventh. But I wonder if they weren't also charmed by the children's choir that enters at the heart of the symphony. Who couldn't be?

[00:15:13]The scheme is large but unified. It works. If I have any criticism of this mighty work, it's that the final movement doesn't quite nail the landing for me. It's a little long and unwieldy, but again, let me stress the finale is not too long for the piece itself. The symphony begins with such a huge, long march in its first movement that a more gradual descent, a longer landing, is structurally required here. And in any case, the finale is filled with such amazing moments. What do I know?

[00:15:45]>> [music] >> Incidentally, this is the work Mahler was referring to when he talked to Sibelius about the symphony containing the world, and it certainly contains lots, plenty of nuts, I myself still need time to crack.

[00:15:59]>> [music] >> And is that a D major finish I hear?

[00:16:06]Perfect for a great audio mix for the next symphony.

[00:16:10]>> [music] [music] >> One of the greatest charms of Mahler's first is its easy accessibility. If you're relatively new on the Mahler Express, this is definitely a stop to visit early. It's the first of his symphonies I myself grasped in its entirety, and it's packed with melody, contrast, brilliance. I'll go as far as to nominate this as the greatest first symphony ever written by anyone, although Brahms might have a word to say about that, and Berlioz would probably just punch me.

[00:16:46]>> My symphony is fantastic.

[00:16:48]>> Which makes it all the more astounding how badly this work was received at its premiere. Mahler did revise it a number of times over the coming years, even removing an entire movement. Yet, even so, each time he re-premiered a new version, the audience response was disappointing, which is baffling. How could people not have immediately recognized how good this work was?

[00:17:10]>> [music] >> Well, the answer almost certainly lies in the tone of the piece, specifically that slow third movement where Mahler describes an animal funeral march. And my word, Mahler does enjoy a funeral march or five. This one is based on this actual woodcut, [music] Animals in a funeral march for their hunter.

[00:17:36]Presented with a theme based, of all things, on the kiddie ditty Frère Jacques in a minor key.

[00:17:43]>> [music] [music] >> Followed, I would note, by a section sounding like a klezmer band.

[00:17:56]>> [music] [music] >> To be played, according to the score, with parody.

[00:18:09]Which is classic [music] Mahlerian sonic neuroticism. It's not just the change of tones, it's their combination and mixture. Remember, these are animals, the hunted, carrying the hunter's body.

[00:18:21]The animals themselves may have ambiguous feelings about the whole affair.

[00:18:32]>> [music] >> Mahler's first symphony had a disastrous premiere, and apparently the positive mood [music] changed significantly after this third movement, which is no problem for our modern ears. Mahler's first might be full of sarcastic burlesque, but it's full of lots more. Nostalgia, tragedy, terror, uplifting triumph, all jammed together with energy and invention. I'm surprised to learn, and perhaps I shouldn't be, that this is actually the most performed of all Mahler's works. It's large, but scalable, accessible, and quite brilliant. Okay, masterpieces everywhere.

[00:19:09]What in hell comes next.

[00:19:21]Yes, it's the symphony that produced Mahler's most famous musical moment, the slow Adagietto, which was used so successfully in Visconti's Death in Venice, a film starring a suspiciously Mahler-looking Dirk Bogarde as a composer meeting his final doom on a Venetian [music] beach. The symphony itself certainly runs the gamut between tragic and hopeful. It's a superb piece of musical engineering, beginning with that famous trumpet theme.

[00:19:53]>> [music] >> Every movement of this work is wonderful. Every movement hangs perfectly with the others. An exhilarating second movement followed by the most incredible scherzo at the heart of the symphony, a scherzo that travels far and wide indeed.

[00:20:12]Then, of course, there's that amazing Adagietto.

[00:20:24]Lenny Bernstein loved the symphony so much he was actually buried with the score. And as the casket was closed at his funeral, the score was deliberately left open at the page of Lenny's favorite movement, this Adagietto.

[00:20:39]Anyway, all that loveliness is concluded by a wonderful finale, >> [music] >> together forming a beautifully constructed work that tells us a story, a narrative, like Beethoven's Fifth, and like Beethoven's Fifth, this narrative seems to be a struggle of triumph against adversity. The story itself can wait for another video, but suffice it to say, Symphony No. 5 is a genius work that's also surprisingly accessible. And if you're wondering why such an amazing work doesn't make the top three, that's a sign of the quality ahead.

[00:21:27]Again, a symphony I used to not be particularly keen on, but now find stunning. And the lesson here is if you think Mahler isn't quite your man, give the composer time. He really does reward the effort. Symphony No. 6 is known as tragic, but honestly, it's not a gloom and doom number. There's plenty of resolution and positivity in the work.

[00:21:46]It's also wonderfully dramatic and full of contrast.

[00:21:50]>> [music] >> The symphony is scored for a very large orchestra, the largest purely instrumental forces Mahler ever conscripted. And there's also the famous hammer blows meant to replicate the blows of fate.

[00:22:06]>> [music] >> I have to say, the whole hammer stuff leaves me rather cold. The sound is dead and dull.

[00:22:14]>> [music] >> Which is a deliberate choice by Mahler.

[00:22:18]He didn't want a metallic clang, but orally, it's a bit of an anticlimax. And I have to say, recorded music might be an issue here. Mahler has scored the hammer blow as a dramatic moment. That's a dramatic moment to be seen and not just heard. But if you only hear the blows, they can sound underwhelming.

[00:22:36]Mahler was always open to a bit of showmanship. For example, ordering the horn players to stand during the climax to his first symphony. But visually, wouldn't it be glib of me to point out that we have superheroes with much more powerful hammers on our TVs every day.

[00:22:51]But when you get past the artifice, Mahler's 6th may well be his most conventional symphony.

[00:23:00]>> [music] >> With three normalish movements, including a beautiful slow one, rounded off by a wonderful finale.

[00:23:09]>> [music] >> It's odd. This work used to sound unfriendly to me, whereas now it feels like one of the most traditional of Mahler's symphonies. It comes out of the tradition of Beethoven and Bruckner, and it will lead into the tradition of Shostakovich and Stravinsky, which is worth remembering when you hear talk about Mahler and the death of the symphony. A death that might be rather exaggerated once you take a cultural peek outside Vienna. And despite being labeled as tragic, it's the only one of his symphonies to end in the minor key, it's actually one of his most life-affirming works. It's emotional, intimate. It's a very large work, but it's not off-putting or frightening.

[00:23:49]Rather, it contains some of Mahler's most sensitive and emotive writing. His wife, Alma, called it his most personal symphony.

[00:24:04]>> [music] >> It was so funny receiving this comment while I was working on this video itself. I was indeed listening to Mahler's wonderful ninth. I am in complete awe of this work, which over the years has just kept going up and up in my estimations. It's truly a magnificent piece. Mahler completed it before his death, but never had the chance to edit it. He never even heard it performed, which always makes me so curious. How did he manage to come up with such a complete and integrated work without his usual fussing and fretting?

[00:24:38]You can certainly say Mahler died right at the peak of his creative powers.

[00:24:42]>> [music] >> The work was composed amid the trauma [music] of losing his young daughter, Maria, his resignation from the Vienna Court Opera, and his diagnosis of a serious heart condition. Facing mortality, the Ninth Symphony is often viewed as Mahler's farewell. A farewell to life? Is it about death? Is it about dying? Is it even a farewell to tonality itself?

[00:25:11]>> [music] >> The trajectory of the piece is opposite to a usual symphony with slow first and final outer movements containing within them faster movements. And my god, there's so much beauty in this work.

[00:25:26]This is no gloomy dying in bed. The work bursts with vitality, contrast, energy, and dance.

[00:25:34]The final movements justifiable we get applauded, but I have to say it's the first movement that really bowls me over. This is my favorite single movement in all Mahler's work taking us through the extremes of agony and ecstasy. What contrast, what incredible orchestral writing.

[00:25:56]>> [music] >> Second movement is also breathtaking. A dance that starts so simply >> [music] >> but goes to bizarre and grotesque places.

[00:26:13]>> [music] [music] >> And do I hear bits of the first movement in the second movement?

[00:26:31]>> [music] >> Yes, I do. But Mahler had been doing that since his first symphony. And not just that, he also uses bits of symphonies in other symphonies, which raises the idea that Mahler didn't write nine symphonies, but one single long one. But anyway, that sense of hearing echoes of movements within other movements, that's particularly quality of this ninth symphony. And another enduring feature, the better you become acquainted with the work. So, that wonderful second movement is followed by another brilliant fast third movement.

[00:27:04]And then that final movement, bliss and beauty.

[00:27:09]>> [music] [music] [music] >> This symphony, quite simply, contains some of the greatest music ever composed. As indeed does the only symphony to pip it in my opinion, for now.

[00:27:33]>> [music] >> What a work, huge and yet lean, packed with drama and contrast, an immense emotional journey from darkness to light, from death to resurrection.

[00:27:47]Hence, of course, the title. People often point out similarities with Beethoven's ninth, a mighty work crowned with a choral finish. And you know what?

[00:27:56]That second movement definitely reminds me of something.

[00:28:00]>> [music] [music] >> The work stands comparison with Beethoven's mighty ninth as it is all executed so brilliantly. Everything works in the Resurrection Symphony. The first movement that feels like an entire work of its own. And indeed, it was originally conceived by Mahler as an orchestral tone poem. And then two wonderful middle movements bursting with energy and melody, followed by the pure singular beauty of Urlicht.

[00:28:45]And then that immense finale filled to the brim with ideas and musical invention and loud crashes and of course some amazing climaxes.

[00:28:57]>> [music] [music] >> I sometimes wonder if it might have been an issue for Mahler composing his greatest symphony at just the second attempt which meant Mahler after this work was continually trying to reach further, to stretch longer and make bigger, trying to outdo something which he never quite could until he stopped trying with his ninth which is the only one of his symphonies to reach the heights of his second. Well, that's my conjecture. What is not in question is how great this second symphony is. Yes, it's long but everything in it works.

[00:29:38]Every time I've come back to the symphony it's been another journey of pleasure and discovery. Okay, that's me done. Do check out my other channel, Enjoy Everything Else, where I'm desperately trying to get it monetized but I need the thousand subs so please go there and subscribe. That's me out.

[00:29:54]Thank you.

[00:29:56]>> [music] [music] [music]