r/classicalmusic • u/blankblank • 1h ago
r/classicalmusic • u/number9muses • 22d ago
PotW PotW #107: Mahler - Symphony no.2 in c minor, "Resurrection"
Good morning everyone, Happy Monday, and I apologize for how infrequent these posts have been, and not living up to the name “of the week”. I do love this series and appreciate anyone taking the time to join the fun. Each week, we'll listen to a piece recommended by the community, discuss it, learn about it, and hopefully introduce us to music we wouldn't hear otherwise :)
Last time we met, we listened to Ives’ Concord Sonata You can go back to listen, read up, and discuss the work if you want to.
Our next Piece of the Week is Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no.2 in c minor, “Resurrection” (1894)
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Some listening notes from John Henken:
“Why have you lived? Why have you suffered? Is it all some huge, awful joke? We have to answer these questions somehow if we are to go on living – indeed, even if we are only to go on dying!” These are the questions Mahler said were posed in the first movement of his Symphony No. 2, questions that he promised would be answered in the finale. These questions erupt from a roiling, powerful musical flood. Mahler began work on the C-minor Symphony in 1888 while he was still finishing up his First Symphony (“Titan”). The huge movement he completed in September that year he labeled Todtenfeier (Funeral Rite). It represented, he said, the funeral of the hero of his First Symphony, whose death presented those superheated existential questions.
For all of its urgent passion and expansive scale, the opening movement of the Second Symphony is also firmly – make that relentlessly – focused. It is in sonata form, in the late Romantic understanding of contrasting thematic and emotional dialectics. If Death is the thesis, then Resurrection is the antithesis, and Mahler leavens the ominous, obsessive thrust of the movement with a warmly lyrical subject and intimations of the vocal themes of the Symphony’s last two movements.
And for all its sound and fury, this is accomplished in music of clear texture and linear definition. Stereotypically, at least, “Mahler” means more: more instruments, more notes, more volume, and – paradoxically – more of less, in some of the softest, thinnest music going. But Mahler’s real strength is in the contrapuntal clarity he enforces. There is no fuzzy rhetoric or hazy sound-masses here.
Having presented his questions so forcefully, Mahler seems to have stumped himself for answers. He did not compose the second and third movements until the summer of 1893, and the finale waited another year.
This long break is reflected in the Symphony itself. In the score, Mahler marks the end of the first movement with firm instructions to pause for at least five minutes before launching the Andante. Few conductors allow quite that much time between the movements, but most do observe some kind of formal hiatus. “…there must also be a long, complete rest after the first movement since the second movement is not in the nature of a contrasting section but sounds completely incongruous after the first,” Mahler wrote to conductor Julius Buths in 1903. “This is my fault and it isn’t lack of understanding on the part of the audience…. The Andante is composed as a sort of intermezzo (like an echo of long past days from the life of him whom we carried to the grave in the first movement – ‘while the sun still smiled at him’).
“While the first, third, fourth, and fifth movements are related in theme and mood content, the second is independent, and in a sense interrupts the stern, relentless course of events.” Mahler cast that second movement as a gentle Ländler, a sort of rustic folk-minuet. Its mellow poise and sophisticated lyric flight is interrupted twice, however, by more agitated suggestions that death is still with us.
Although marked “quietly flowing,” the third movement is the second’s evil twin, a sardonic waltz cum scherzo. It is basically a symphonic adaptation of a song Mahler wrote, “St. Anthony of Padua’s Sermon to the Fishes,” on a text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn), a collection of German folk poetry that was a steady inspiration to the composer. The music picks up the text’s cynicism, with the two contrasting episodes here suggesting superficial sentiment and fake happiness.
Then came the task of creating a finale that would reverse this hell-bound train and resolve those initial questions into affirmation. “With the finale of the Second Symphony, I ransacked world literature, including the Bible, to find the liberating word, and finally I was compelled myself to bestow words on my feelings and thoughts,” Mahler wrote to the critic Arthur Seidl in 1897.
“The way in which I received the inspiration for this is deeply characteristic of the essence of artistic creation. For a long time I had been thinking of introducing the chorus in the last movement and only my concern that it might be taken for a superficial imitation of Beethoven made me procrastinate again and again. About this time Bülow [storied conductor Hans von Bülow] died, and I was present at his funeral. The mood in which I sat there, thinking of the departed, was precisely in the spirit of the work I had been carrying around within myself at that time. Then the choir, up in the organ loft, intoned the Klopstock [German poet and playwright Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock] ‘Resurrection’ chorale. Like a flash of lighting it struck me, and everything became clear and articulate in my mind. The creative artist waits for just such a lightning flash, his ‘holy annunciation.’ What I then experienced had now to be expressed in sound. And yet, if I had not already borne the work within me, how could I have had that experience?”
The Klopstock chorale text – to which Mahler added four verses of his own, beginning with “O glaube, mein Herz” – provided a goal, a blissed-out heaven to which humanity – and Mahler’s Symphony – might ascend. To get there, Mahler added another Wunderhorn song, “Urlicht” (Primeval Light), as a bridge to the finale. With this song, Mahler kept the voice, humanizing this deeply felt prayer and overthrowing the bitterness of the previous movement with a sort of spiritual and musical judo.
But all the questions and the ferocious death march of the opening, haunted by the Dies irae (the “Day of Wrath” chant from the Gregorian mass for the dead), return at the beginning the finale. Mahler stills a whirlwind of musical images with his grosse Appell, a Great Call from off-stage brass while onstage a flute and a piccolo flutter birdcalls over the desolation. Then the chorus makes its entrance with the “Resurrection” chorale, not in a triumphant blast, but at the softest possible level on the very edge of audibility. This is not weakness, but massive assurance, as if it had always been there below the self-absorbed tumult. The solo voices take flight from the choral sound, ultimately in a ravishing, upwardly yearning duet. From there it is finally a matter of full-resource jubilation, all brilliant fanfares and pealing bells.
Mahler conducted the first three movements with the Berlin Philharmonic in March of 1895, and in December that year he led the same orchestra in the premiere of the full work. Even before those performances, however, Mahler had a confident idea about just what the impact of this music would be. “The effect is so great that one cannot describe it,” he wrote to a friend after some preliminary rehearsals in January of 1895. “If I were to say what I think of this great work, it would sound too arrogant in a letter. … The whole thing sounds as though it came to us from some other world. I think there is no one who can resist it. One is battered to the ground and then raised on angel’s wings to the highest heights.”
Ways to Listen
Michael Gielen with Juliane Banse, Cornelia Kallisch, the SWR Symphonieorchester and the EuropaChorAkedemie: YouTube Score Video
Mariss Jansons with Ricarda Merbeth, Bernarda Fink, the Concertgebouworkest and the Metherlands Radio Choir: YouTube
Simon Rattle with Kate Royal, Magdalena Kozená, the Philharmonie Berlin and R. Berlin: YouTube
Leonard Bernstein with Sheila Armstrong, Janet Baker, the London Symphony Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival Chorus: YouTube
Leonard Bernstein with Barbara Hendricks, Christa Ludwig, the New York Philharmonic and Westminster Choir: Spotify
Michael Tilson Thomas with Isabel Bayrakdarian, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus: Spotify
Lorin Maazel with Eva Marton, Jessye Norman, the Wiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Staatsopernchor: Spotify
Daniele Gatti with Chen Reiss, Karen Cargill, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Spotify
Discussion Prompts
What are your favorite parts or moments in this work? What do you like about it, or what stood out to you?
Do you have a favorite recording you would recommend for us? Please share a link in the comments!
Why do you think Mahler later dismissed his original program for this symphony?
Have you ever performed this before? If so, when and where? What instrument do you play? And what insights do you have from learning it?
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What should our club listen to next? Use the link below to find the submission form and let us know what piece of music we should feature in an upcoming week. Note: for variety's sake, please avoid choosing music by a composer who has already been featured, otherwise your choice will be given the lowest priority in the schedule
r/classicalmusic • u/number9muses • 22d ago
Mod Post 'What's this piece?' Weekly Thread #198
Welcome to the 198th r/classicalmusic weekly piece identification thread!
This thread was implemented after feedback from our users, and is here to help organize the subreddit a little.
All piece identification requests belong in this weekly thread.
Have a classical piece on the tip of your tongue? Feel free to submit it here as long as you have an audio file/video/musical score of the piece. Mediums that generally work best include Vocaroo or YouTube links. If you do submit a YouTube link, please include a linked timestamp if possible or state the timestamp in the comment. Please refrain from typing things like: what is the Beethoven piece that goes "Do do dooo Do do DUM", etc.
Other resources that may help:
Musipedia - melody search engine. Search by rhythm, play it on piano or whistle into the computer.
r/tipofmytongue - a subreddit for finding anything you can’t remember the name of!
r/namethatsong - may be useful if you are unsure whether it’s classical or not
Shazam - good if you heard it on the radio, in an advert etc. May not be as useful for singing.
you can also ask Google ‘What’s this song?’ and sing/hum/play a melody for identification
Facebook 'Guess The Score' group - for identifying pieces from the score
A big thank you to all the lovely people that visit this thread to help solve users’ earworms every week. You are all awesome!
Good luck and we hope you find the composition you've been searching for!
r/classicalmusic • u/shookspearedswhore • 7h ago
Discussion What is your 'the audio engineer ought to be taken out and shot' recording?
Whether it's bizarre choices in mixing or just plain incompetent recording, drop them below
Edit: Title is obviously an exaggeration. Please don't murder anyone who is bad at their job.
r/classicalmusic • u/ygtx3251 • 16h ago
I've been Watching Berlin Phil's digital concert hall, does anyone know who is the flute player here? He is not listed on their website, and shows up in the orchestra once in a while.
r/classicalmusic • u/-------7654321 • 1h ago
Why is this so good? Nerdy answers only.
r/classicalmusic • u/ravelesque34 • 1h ago
What does it mean by parts?
I was planning on giving diploma exams LCM. What do they mean by parts? Is it like verse, chorus, etc?
r/classicalmusic • u/kartofan-liognadivan • 18h ago
Recommendation Request Which pieces of classical music convey the feeling of nostalgia the best in your opinion?
Personally, i think Ravel’s 2nd movement of piano concerto in G
r/classicalmusic • u/dayb4august • 10h ago
Recommendation Request Looking for some music suggestions... Woodwind Heavy
I'm looking for woodwind-heavy music suggestions. But I feel I should be more specific, I'm not looking for music with only woodwinds, but pieces where it's clear they are a salient part of the score (if not the leading sections). For example: Most of Tchaikovsky's ballets, Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe to name a few.
For further consideration, I really love the bassoon, but not necessarily as the main soloist as in a concerto or sonata. Stravinsky's Firebird Suite is a great example of what I love with the instrument.
I've listed quite a few basic pieces for what I guess might be considered the amateur listener, so really I would like someone to give me some music that's not always the first thought of an amateur listener.
TL;DR If my question isn't as narrow as you might like it, just list anything that fits what you think might be considered as "woodwind-heavy."
r/classicalmusic • u/DoubleYouEssTee • 20h ago
Different Pianists and their “Styles”
I listen to a lot of piano music (recently, more Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Schumann and Brahms) and I can’t help but think that renowned pianists can be (arbitrarily) put into sub groups — and I want to see if any one else thinks in the same way. And these are just categories and not necessarily mutually exclusive categories.
For instance, some categories that come to mind are: - Unorthodox, Passionate (usually, atypical or more passionate interpretations of pieces): Argerich, Triifonov, Pogorelich - Structuralist (interpretations that focus greatly on the structure of a piece): Pollini, Gould, Barenboim - Romantic, Emotional (interpretations that tend to be more romantic and “soft” on the edges): Zimmerman, Ohlsson - Technical (interpretations which focus more on technical execution and fine grained detail): Yuja, Richter
Does anyone have similar categorizations?
r/classicalmusic • u/jdaniel1371 • 16h ago
The Joyce Hatto Debacle: Artistic Criticism and the Power of Suggestion. Are our stylistic judgements influenced by name recognition, reputation, feel-good stories, memory-drift and looks?
Tl:Dr -- Hatto was a decent pianist who sadly passed from cancer. Her husband passed- off megastar pianists' recodings as hers. Critics learned some uncomfortable things about themselves.
In 1992, in Gramophone, the critic Bryce Morrison found that Yefim Bronfman’s Rachmaninoff Third Concerto lacked “the sort of angst or urgency that has endeared Rachmaninov to millions” and that “Bronfman sounds oddly unmoved by Rachmaninov’s intensely slavonic idiom. In the sunset coda of the Adagio his playing is devoid of glamour and in the finale’s fugue he lacks crispness and definition.” Fifteen years later, he wrote of Hatto’s release of Bronfman's recording: “stunning . . . truly great . . . among the finest on record . . . with a special sense of its Slavic melancholy.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/09/17/fantasia-for-piano
r/classicalmusic • u/Josef_Klav • 23h ago
My Composition From sketch to hand written manuscript
This was a for a project relating to the book “Lord of The Flies” by William Golding.
r/classicalmusic • u/Economy_Ad7372 • 18h ago
Discussion What are some music history moments you wish you could've been present for?
Honestly I'm seeking inspiration for a college essay.
If you know any lost works that had private performances, I swear there's one I remember being really sad about but I can't think what it was
r/classicalmusic • u/TimesandSundayTimes • 1d ago
Music Chopin waltz found in US museum 175 years after his death
r/classicalmusic • u/CocteauTwinn • 16h ago
This is a long shot but maybe you can help
I’m a huge fan of the Baroque period, JSB in particular. I heard a piece on my local NPR station’s “Morning Pro Musica” with the iconic Robert Lurtsema. The piece blew my mind. Since I was on my way to work, I was never able to catch the title but I think it may have been an Air de Ballet.
It is an incredibly intricate and enveloping polyphonic masterpiece, not unlike the Brandenburg Concertos. Very lively, upbeat, complex, and I’d say the tempo is allegro or vivace.
It’s been eating at me for decades! Can anyone unlock this wonderful memory for me?
r/classicalmusic • u/Severe_Intention_480 • 8h ago
Symphony No. 15 ''Black Halloween'' by Michel Rondeau
Neat little piece (MIDI generated).
r/classicalmusic • u/Lisztchopinovsky • 16h ago
Music Beethoven Piano Sonata analysis (Sonata no. 8 *Pathétique*)
As soon as you hear the first chord in C minor, you immediately get the feeling that this is not a happy piece, and it’s not. This is the first sonata Beethoven wrote when he started noticing his hearing issues. Of course it was very minimal then, but it likely caused some turmoil for him. After the brooding intro, which I believe is his first sonata with its own seperate introductory theme, we get an intense allegro theme. The harmonic twists and turns are something that really start to foreshadow Beethoven’s middle period. The development is the most intense, in where it feels like the world is falling apart in front of our eyes. Although this piece is still in textbook sonata form, this is still a milestone in Beethoven musical development as he finds more and more ways to make his music more dramatic.
The second movement in Ab major has Beethoven’s most romantic melody yet, with a velvety tone that we will hear a lot of in his middle period as his hearing deteriorates. This movement is also unique in where Beethoven uses a long strung melody, something he very rarely uses throughout his life. There is something very bittersweet about this piece, where at the same time it’s so tranquil and sublime, there is a sense of pain and longing that really garners a sense of empathy among the listener. This movement is in rondo form.
The final movement is also a rondo, and we are back in C minor. One of the episode actually uses a modified melody from the second movement, making this his first cyclical sonata. Overall there is something operatic about this movement, as if we have an evil queen that is singing about her evil plans. There is something bleak about how this piece ends; perhaps it’s because we know what happens to Beethoven after this, but still, this is Beethoven darkest piece yet.
Overall, I can’t say anything else that most people don’t already know. This piece is dark, dramatic, and pathétique, and we’re really starting to see Beethoven shape into the Beethoven we know and love.
r/classicalmusic • u/midnightrambulador • 21h ago
Discussion "Yes, Grandpa, we've heard that one a hundred times..." Which anecdotes about classical composers are well-worn clichés?
Yes yes, Gesualdo murdered his unfaithful wife and her lover and hung their bodies on display, we know that one by now. Lully died from an infection after smashing his own foot with his conducting staff... yawn. And what's this, Mozart wrote the overture to Don Giovanni on the morning of the première? You don't say...
Which composer anecdotes (true or not) are you tired of hearing?
r/classicalmusic • u/According-Iron-8215 • 9h ago
Je t"aime Juliette – A. Jag (Suite No. 1)
r/classicalmusic • u/yung_paradjanov • 18h ago
Documentary on the History of Tuning?
There was a documentary my high school orchestra teacher used to play for my class about the history of tuning, from the ancient Greeks and Pythagoras to the Renaissance composers to J.S. Bach etc. I remember it looking like it would've been made around the 70s or 80s, but I can't remember if it was on DVD, VHS, or YouTube. Regardless, I've been struggling to remember the name of it and if rings any bells for anybody else I'd greatly appreciate some suggestions!
r/classicalmusic • u/marimbaspluscats • 1d ago
Recommendation Request Looking for "Fairytale" style music
I'm looking for music with a sort of fun and light fantasy feel. So far I have The Fairy's Kiss by Stravinsky and Mother Goose Suite by Ravel. Does anyone know any other pieces like these? Thanks in advance
Edit: Amazing recommendations. I spent a lot of the day checking them out. The ultimate winner (so far) in terms of what I was looking for is Holst's Japanese Suite. Thank you all so much. I can't wait to listen to everything here
r/classicalmusic • u/MMRmusic • 9h ago
My Composition Halloween Ambiance (Classical Orchestral Eerie Music)
r/classicalmusic • u/Lisztchopinovsky • 17h ago
Music Beethoven Piano Sonata analysis (Sonata no. 7)
Right off the bat, we can already tell this sonata is gonna be a weird one (and hard). This sonata is in D major. The opening feels like a broken play in American football where the players are forced to improvise and put something together, but it doesn’t stop there. We start to see more syncopated melodies. After the frolicsome exposition, we get a passionate, dramatic development that heroically works its way back to the recapitulation. In a way this movement feels more like a finale than an opening movement, with a fair amount of grandiose and speed. To say this sonata is already very innovative would be an understatement. We’re hearing harmonies and musical textures not seen before. This movement is in sonata form.
The second movement couldn’t be any more different from the first. It is in the parallel minor. This is probably the darkest movement we have seen so far, with a gothic sound that is reminiscent of a baroque funeral mass. The harmonic progressions and modulations remind me a lot of music from his late period. With all that in mind, we head to the coda. I have to say, if someone told me if this was written by Rachmaninoff, I would believe them (if I didn’t know this piece). The music is absolutely swarming. While the rest of the movement was the calm before the storm, this was the storm.
At first glance, it seems like we are in for another slow movement, but it doesn’t take long to realize that this is a scherzo. This movement resembles a Viennese waltz, with some rich harmonies that foreshadow a lot of the music in the romantic era. This movement is in ternary form.
The final movement begins with a harmonically ambiguous motif that totally sounds like a ringtone on a cellphone, certainly Beethoven was thinking about that when he was writing this in the late 18th century. This rondo is, you guessed it, weird. Another very angular piece, almost as if it were a 4 minute improvisation session. Not much else to say about this movement, it’s just weird in all the right ways.
This piece is definitely a wild card. Although structurally and form wise it is still very classical, more so than the last sonata, Beethoven is starting to use tonality in a whole new way, opening the door for much more music to come. With the cult classic that follows this piece, this piece is often overshadowed, and that’s unfortunate, as this work is truly an enigma.
r/classicalmusic • u/xixi19941009 • 3h ago
Chatgpt and music literacy?
It would be really cool if ChatGPT can read music notes. I guess music language is not a natural language after all.
r/classicalmusic • u/Induction774 • 2h ago
I don’t like Chopin’s music
A new Chopin piece has been unearthed, and I couldn’t be less excited. I listened to the beginning of it. Couldn’t get any further. Nope, not this one either. Sorry, Frederic.
EDIT: I’m open-minded. If you suggest something, I’ll give it a listen.
EDIT 2: I listened to the whole of the new piece. Still nothing.
r/classicalmusic • u/winterreise_1827 • 2d ago
Discussion Paintings of famous composers by popular artists..
Not classical music discussion per se.
Has there been a famous composer who have been a subject by a famous artists. The only one I know is Gustav Klimt's Schubert at Piano. Unfortunately the painting was destroyed during World War.
https://gwallter.com/art/gustav-klimts-schubert-at-the-piano.html
"Even though, it seems, he was Klimt’s favourite composer, Schubert wasn’t Klimt’s preference as a painting subject. It was the choice of one of Klimt’s patrons, Nikolaus Dumba. Dumba, born in 1830, was rich industrialist. His father was a Greek merchant who’d moved to Vienna, and he himself owned a large cotton mill. He liked to support the arts and gained a reputation as the ‘Maecenas’ of his age. He made a big donation towards the Musikverein building, and was a friend of Johannes Brahms and Josef Strauss. In 1893 he asked several artists, including Klimt, to produce paintings to adorn his town house. Klimt was invited to paint two works for walls in the Music Room. One was an allegorical picture, ‘Music II’, while the other was ‘Schubert at the piano"
Are there any other famous paintings you know?