Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast21 Sep 2023

Mahler Symphony No. 4, Part 2

If you haven't listened to Part 1 of this episode about Mahler's 4th symphony, I highly recommend doing that, as every movement of this symphony builds to the "Heavenly Life" of the last movement. On Part 2, we'll be going through the 3rd and 4th movements. Mahler told his friend Natalie Bauer-Lechner that the 3rd movement of the symphony was created by "a vision of a tombstone on which was carved an image of the departed, with folded arms, in eternal sleep." As you can imagine based on that description, there is an unearthly beauty to the slow movement of Mahler's 4th. Much like the Heiliger Dankgesang movement from Beethoven's Op. 132 string quartet I talked about a couple of weeks ago, we often get the feeling in the slow movement of Mahler's 4th that we are listening to music that is coming to us from the other side. As the slow movement comes to its end, we are introduced to the last movement, a sublime and peaceful song Mahler entitled "The Heavenly Life." This is a symphony that leaves you in a state like no other in the musical world, and so today we'll go through that slow movement, investigating just how Mahler makes it so extraordinary, and then we'll talk about the last movement, a movement that has divided listeners from the beginning due to its unusual text. I can't promise we'll find all the answers, but along the way, we'll get to listen to some truly divine music. We'll also get to hear Mahler himself playing - that's right, Mahler himself! Join us!

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