Mahler Foundation
209 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 3 years ago - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsMahler Foundation is the center for education and promotion of the music of Gustav Mahler to everyone around the world.
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Episodes
Mahler Symphony No. 1 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBVery restrained throughout, D major. The first movement is in modified sonata form, with a substantially slow introduction. The introduction begins eerily with a seven-octave drone in the strings on A, with the upper octaves being played on harmonics in the violins. A descending two-note motif is then presented by the woodwinds, and eventually establishes itself into the following repeated pattern: This opening, in its minimalist nature and repeated descending motif, alludes to the first mo...
Mahler Symphony No. 1 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBMoving strongly, but not too quickly, restrained, a trio Ländler. The second movement is a modified minuet and trio. Mahler replaces the minuet with a Ländler, a 3/4 dance-form that was a precursor to the Austrian waltz. This is a popular structure in Mahler’s other symphonies, as well as Franz Schubert’s. One main theme repeats throughout the Ländler, and it gathers energy towards a hectic finish. The main melody outlines an A major chord. The trio contains contrasting lyrical material; ho...
Mahler Symphony No. 1 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 20 minutes - 14.2 MBSolemnly and measured, without dragging, very simple, like a folk-tune, once again somewhat more agitated, as at the start. A funeral march based on the children’s song “Frère Jacques” (or “Bruder Jacob”). The third movement acts as the slow movement in the four-movement plan. The extra-musical idea behind it is that of a hunter’s funeral and a procession of animals that follows. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - 3rd Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 1 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MBEnergisch, Stormily agitated – Energetic. The fourth movement is by far the most involved, and expansive. It brings back several elements from the first movement, unifying the symphony as a whole. The movement begins with an abrupt cymbal crash, a loud chord in the upper woodwinds, string and brass, and a bass drum hit, all in succession. This contrasts greatly with the end of the third movement. As the strings continue in a frenzy of notes, fragments of a theme in F minor appear, presented ...
Mahler Symphony No. 1 - Blumine Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 6 minutes - 4.35 MBBlumine translates to ‘floral’, or ‘flower’, and some believe this movement was written for Johanna Richter (1858-1943), with whom Mahler was infatuated at the time. The style of this movement has much in common with Mahler’s earlier works but also shows the techniques and distinct style of his later compositions. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - Blumine Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 2 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 11 minutes - 7.75 MBThe ink was barely dry on the score of his First Symphony in 1888 when Mahler began to toy with the idea of a new large symphonic work in c. The opening movement was soon completed and named Todtenfeier (Funeral Ceremony), but it then languished among his papers until 1891, the year in which he left the Budapest Opera to become conductor in Hamburg. There he attracted the attention of the great conductor Hans von Bulow (1830-1894), well known as a champion of new music. When Mahler played hi...
Symphony No. 1 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 1 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - 2th Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 1 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 20 minutes - 14.2 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - 3rd Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 1 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 35 minutes - 24.7 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - 4th Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 1 - Blumine Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 6 minutes - 4.35 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - Blumine Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 1 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 20 minutes - 13.9 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 1 - Intro with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 2 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 18:00 - 11 minutes - 7.75 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 2 - Intro with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 19 minutes - 13.5 MBIn the tempo of a minuet. A major. Mahler dedicated the second movement to “the flowers on the meadow”. In contrast to the violent forces of the first movement, it starts as a graceful Menuet but also features stormier episodes. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 3 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBVery slowly, mysteriously. A minor. “Midnight song”. At this point, in the sparsely instrumentated fourth movement, we hear an alto solo singing a setting of Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Midnight Song” from Also sprach Zarathustra “O Mensch! Gib acht!” (“O man! Take heed!”), with thematic material from the first movement woven into it. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 3 - 4th Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 5th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBThe cheerful fifth movement, “Es sungen drei Engel”, is one of Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn songs, (whose text itself is loosely based on a 17th-century church hymn, which Paul Hindemithlater used in its original form in his Symphony “Mathis der Maler”) about the redemption of sins and comfort in belief. Here, a children’s choir imitating bells and a female chorus join the alto solo. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 3 - 5th Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - 6th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 51 minutes - 35.2 MBOf the great finale, Bruno Walter wrote, “In the last movement, words are stilled—for what language can utter heavenly love more powerfully and forcefully than music itself? The Adagio, with its broad, solemn melodic line, is, as a whole—and despite passages of burning pain—eloquent of comfort and grace. It is a single sound of heartfelt and exalted feelings, in which the whole giant structure finds its culmination. The movement begins very softly with a broad D-major chorale melody, which ...
Mahler Symphony No. 3 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBSymphony No. 3 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1893 and 1896. It is his longest piece and is the longest symphony in the standard repertoire, with a typical performance lasting around ninety to one hundred minutes. In its final form, the work has six movements, grouped into two Parts. The first movement alone, with a normal duration of a little more than thirty minutes, sometimes forty, forms Part One of the symphony. Part Two consists of the other five movements and has a duration of ...
Mahler Symphony No. 4 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MBModerately, not rushed, Sonata form. Flutes and sleigh bells open the unusually restrained first movement (and used later with a melodic theme known commonly as the ‘bell theme’, which helps define sections throughout the movement) often described as possessing classical poise. As would be expected for the first movement of a symphony, the first movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 is in sonata form. A listening guide of Symphony No. 4 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 4 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 28 minutes - 19.3 MBLeisurely moving, without haste. Scherzo and Trio. The second movement is a scherzo that features a part for a solo violin whose strings are tuned a tone higher than usual. The violin depicts Freund Hein, (lit. “Friend Henry”) a figure from medieval German art; Hain (or Hein) is a traditional German personification of death, invented by poet Matthias Claudius. Freund Hein is a skeleton who plays the fiddle and leads a Totentanz or “danse macabre”. According to Mahler’s widow, Alma, Mahler t...
Mahler Symphony No. 4 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.3 MBPeacefully, somewhat slowly. Theme and variations. The third movement is a solemn processional march cast as a set of variations. Mahler uses the theme and variation structure in a more unconventional way. This movement can be divided into five main sections: A1 – B1 – A2 – B2 – A3 – CODA. The theme is presented in the first 16 bars of A1, but the true variations don’t appear until section A3, although the theme is developed slightly within the preceding sections; sections A1, A2, B1, and B...
Mahler Symphony No. 4 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.3 MBVery comfortably. Strophic. The fourth movement opens with a relaxed, bucolic scene in G major. A child, voiced by a soprano, presents a sunny, naive vision of Heaven and describes the feast being prepared for all the saints. The scene has its darker elements: the child makes it clear that the heavenly feast takes place at the expense of animals, including a sacrificed lamb. The child’s narrative is punctuated by faster passages recapitulating the first movement. Unlike the final movement o...
Mahler Symphony No. 4 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 16 minutes - 11.2 MBThe Symphony No. 4 in G major by Gustav Mahler was written in 1899 and 1900, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. The song, “Das himmlische Leben”, presents a child’s vision of Heaven. It is sung by a soprano in the work’s fourth and last movement. Although typically described as being in the key of G major, the symphony employs a progressive tonal scheme (‘(b)/G–E’). Mahler’s first four symphonies are often referred to as the “Wunderhorn” symphonies because many of the...
Mahler Symphony No. 5 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 31 minutes - 21.9 MBThe both first movements are in the tragic and gloomy keys of c-sharp minor resp. a minor; The only programmatic indication, Trauermarsch (funeral march), is found in the first movement. The silence is broken by the solitary fanfare of a trumpet which is one of the three main themes of this movement. Out of this comes the melancholy and heavy funeral march dominated by the strings; the woodwind players introduce the third theme in the key of a flat major thus lighting up the gloom in a char...
Mahler Symphony No. 5 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 42 minutes - 29.4 MBThe second movement starts tumultuously and pushing forward in the key of a minor before gliding in a beautiful calm and cantabile theme in the key of f minor “in the rhythm of the funeral march” accompanied by lamentations of the wind instruments reminding on short fanfares. After the tumultuous returning to the key of a minor follows a short and melancholy interlude of cellos and bass drums, thereafter the reprise and development of the principal themes in an alternating game of chaotic tu...
Mahler Symphony No. 5 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 47 minutes - 32.9 MBAs the second part of the symphony follows the above-mentioned third movement, the Scherzo. Totally unexpected, the character of the symphony seems to change: A joyful and exuberant, nearly burlesque atmosphere, caused by the typical Mahlerian rural valses, seems to spread, but it does not seem to be serious, rather forced, nearly exaggerated, as if one tries to chase away a depression by artificial cheerfulness, to turn towards a life full of force and energy in order not having to listen t...
Mahler Symphony No. 5 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 26 minutes - 18.2 MBThe third part of the symphony starts with the fourth movement, a tender Adagietto, one of the most intimate compositions of Mahler and certainly therefore one of the most famous, but also because Visconti used it in his film Death in Venice. After the rather trivial Scherzo, we encounter emotion and sensuality, it is pure poetry transformed into music. One feels that after the Scherzo, there was a rupture out of which a new start arises and thus the Adagietto becomes the prelude of the las...
Mahler Symphony No. 5 - 5th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 48 minutes - 33 MBFinally, the fifth movement is amazing; a long and continued tone of the F horn gives the signal to return to reality and cheerfulness. The gloomy atmosphere of the first two movements is blown away, the tender romance of the fourth movement is left behind. Serene calmness reigns, an exuberant Allegro romps around from one key to the other as if the depressions of before had never existed. The true joy of life rules again, rising to new heights still higher until the grandiose, brightly shi...
Mahler Symphony No. 5 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 20 minutes - 13.8 MBThe Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler was composed in 1901 and 1902, mostly during the summer months at Mahler’s cottage at Maiernigg. Among its most distinctive features are the trumpet solo that opens the work with the same rhythmic motive as used in the opening of Beethoven’s 5th symphony and the frequently performed Adagietto. The musical canvas and emotional scope of the work, which lasts over an hour, are huge. The symphony is sometimes described as being in the key of C? minor since th...
Mahler Symphony No. 6 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBThe first movement, which for the most part has the character of a march, features a motif consisting of an A major triad turning to A minor over a distinctive timpani rhythm. The chords are played by trumpets and oboes when first heard, with the trumpets sounding most loudly in the first chord and the oboes in the second. This motif, which some commentators have linked with fate, reappears in subsequent movements. The first movement also features a soaring melody which the composer’s wife,...
Mahler Symphony No. 6 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MBThe andante provides a respite from the intensity of the rest of the work. Its main theme is an introspective ten-bar phrase in E-flat major, though it frequently touches on the minor mode as well. The orchestration is more delicate and reserved in this movement, making it all the more poignant when compared to the other three. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 6 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 6 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MBThe scherzo marks a return to the unrelenting march rhythms of the first movement, though in a ‘triple-time’ metrical context. Its trio (the middle section), marked Altväterisch (‘old-fashioned’), is rhythmically irregular (4/8 switching to 3/8 and 3/4) and of a somewhat gentler character. According to Alma Mahler, in this movement Mahler “represented the unrhythmic games of the two little children, tottering in zigzags over the sand”. The chronology of its composition suggests otherwise. T...
Mahler Symphony No. 6 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 49.5 MBThe last movement is an extended sonata form, characterized by drastic changes in mood and tempo, the sudden change of glorious soaring melody to deep agony. The movement is punctuated by three hammer blows. Alma quoted her husband as saying that these were three mighty blows of fate befallen by the hero, “the third of which fells him like a tree”. She identified these blows with three later events in Gustav Mahler’s own life: the death of his eldest daughter Maria Anna Mahler, the diagnosi...
Mahler Symphony No. 6 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 12 minutes - 8.28 MBThe Symphony No. 6 in A minor by Gustav Mahler, sometimes referred to as the Tragische (“Tragic”), was composed between 1903 and 1904 (rev. 1906; scoring repeatedly revised). The work’s first performance was in Essen on 27-05-1906 and was conducted by Gustav Mahler. The tragic, even nihilistic, ending of No. 6 has been seen as unexpected, given that the symphony was composed at what was apparently an exceptionally happy time in Mahler’s life: he had married Alma Schindler in 1902, and during...
Mahler Symphony No. 7 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBThe movement is in sonata form. It begins with a slow introduction in B minor, launched by a dark melody played by a baritone horn. The accompanimental rhythm was said to have come to Mahler whilst rowing on the lake at Maiernigg after a period of compositional drought. The principal theme, presented by horns in unison in E minor, is accompanied similarly, though much faster and in a higher register. The second theme is then presented by violins, accompanied by sweeping cello arpeggios. Thi...
Mahler Symphony No. 7 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MBThe movement opens with horns calling to each other. The second horn is muted, however, to create the illusion of distance. Scampering woodwinds imitating somewhat grotesque bird calls pass off into the distance, as the trumpets sound the major-minor seal from the sixth symphony. The horns introduce a rich, somewhat bucolic (A) theme, surrounded by dancing strings and a march rhythm from his song “Revelge”. This theme leads to some confusion about the key, as it switches between C major and...
Mahler Symphony No. 7 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBThere is an undercurrent of night about the spooky third movement; while “Scherzo” means “joke”, this movement is remarkably spooky and even grim. If the first ‘Nachtmusik’ possessed a friendly mood disguised in grotesqueries, this movement is a demon sneering at the listener. This movement is a most morbid and sarcastic mockery of the Viennese waltz. The movement begins with a strange gesture: a pianissimo dialogue between timpani and pizzicato basses and cellos with sardonic interjections...
Mahler Symphony No. 7 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 35 minutes - 24.5 MBThe fourth movement (the second ‘Nachtmusik’) contrasts with the first in that it illustrates a more intimate and ‘human’ scene. With its ‘amoroso’ marking and reduced orchestration (trombones, tuba and trumpets are silent and the woodwinds are reduced by half) this movement has been described as ‘a long stretch of chamber music set amidst this huge orchestral work’. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 7 - 4th Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 7 - 5th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 56 minutes - 38.8 MBBoisterous timpani joined by blazing brass set the scene for the riotous fifth movement. The long, arduous first movement, after three shorter movements developmental in mood, is finally equalled by a substantial ‘daylight’ finale. The movement is a rondo combined with a set of eight variations, capped off by a dramatic coda. There are parodies of Richard Wagner (1813-1883) – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Franz Lehar (1870-1948) – The Merry Widow. --- A listening guide of Symphony No....
Mahler Symphony No. 7 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 16 minutes - 11.2 MBGustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 was written in Year 1904 and Year 1905, with repeated revisions to the scoring. Although the symphony is often described as being in the key of E minor, its tonal scheme is more complicated. The symphony’s Movement 1: Langsam (Adagio) – Allegro risoluto, ma non troppo moves from B minor (introduction) to E minor. The work ends with Movement 5: Rondo-Finale in C Major. This symphony concludes the trio of Mahlers ‘middle’ instrumental symphonies (No. 5, No. 6 an...
Mahler Symphony No. 8 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 46.3 MBVeni Creator Spiritus (“Come Creator Spirit”) is a hymn believed to have been written by Rabanus Maurus in the 9th century. When the original Latin text is used, it is normally sung in Gregorian Chant. As an invocation of the Holy Spirit, in the practice of the Roman Catholic Church it is sung during the liturgical celebration of the feast of Pentecost (at both Terce and Vespers). --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 8 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 8 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 2 hours - 101 MBThe second part of the symphony follows the narrative of the final stages in Goethe’s poem-the journey of Faust’s soul, rescued from the clutches of Mephistopheles, on to its final ascent into heaven. --- A listening guide of Symphony No. 8 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley.
Mahler Symphony No. 8 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MB“Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving” (Gustav Mahler). Part I is based on the (sacred) Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus (“Come, Creator Spirit”). Part II is a setting of the words from the (secular) closing scene of Goethe’s Faust. The depiction of an ideal of redemption through eternal womanhood (das Ewige-Weibliche). The two parts are unified by a ...
Symphony No. 5 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 20 minutes - 13.8 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 5 - Intro with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 6 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 6 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 6 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 6 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 6 - 3rd Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 6 - 3rd Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 6 - 4th Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 1 hour - 49.5 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 6 - 4th Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 6 - Intro - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 12 minutes - 8.28 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 6 - Intro with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.
Symphony No. 7 - 1st Movement - Listening Guide
March 18, 2021 17:00 - 59 minutes - 40.9 MBA listening guide of Symphony No. 7 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.