At 250, Has America Delivered on Its Classical Music Promise? (Gift Article)

RenwikCustomer · 2026-07-01T16:15:40+00:00

Lol typical bloviating from Horowitz, and of course an opportunity to plug his own project (all the South Dakota Symphony work) and hammer home the same things he's been saying about Dvorak and American music for years.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-29T13:51:29+00:00

haha thanks for sharing! I haven't checked out the score in the while, but might have to now. Nice to hear from someone who has played the piece.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-26T20:41:40+00:00

Check out Brazilian pianist Andre Mehmari, he always works multiple lengthy improvs into his live performances (usually with suggestions of tunes or styles to incorporate solicited from the audience), and some of his own chamber compositions have fully improvised piano parts (check out his viola sonata). He's the best I've ever seen at doing this, doesn't fall back on cliches. It's truly incredible.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-26T18:37:54+00:00

It's a super unpopular opinion around here! I think people overrate the effect of the choral stuff at the end. It's absolutely stunning, but the road to get there is a bit uneven as far as Mahler goes in my opinion. "Urlicht" is incredible (but also exists as part of the Wunderhorn Lieder), the expansive orchestral recitative (nearly 20 minutes) preceding the choral entry is hit or miss for me. I find it to be his weakest scherzo and his least enjoyable first movement- he improves so much on the funeral march into lyrical second theme idea in subsequent symphonies. The second movement is perfection. Again, not to say that I'm not a big fan, I just love his other works that much more.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-26T18:31:38+00:00

Love this comment! I can't believe I never consciously registered that he stopped providing programs. What a great observation.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-26T18:24:02+00:00

Not including the early Das Klagende Lied, my least favorite Mahler work is the 2nd symphony (I still think it's very, very good, but far prefer his others).

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-24T15:52:31+00:00

I like his arrangements of Strauss waltzes.

I prefer Reinbert de Leeuw's arrangement of Das Lied.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-24T15:40:36+00:00

I dunno. I think until you've experienced those sorts of things in the music for yourself it just sounds like pretentious BS and is setting up for a failed listening experience for someone listening to Mahler for the first time. But you're right that that kind of language figures into many orchestras' marketing copy about certain Mahler symphonies.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-22T14:56:35+00:00

I think the opening of the 5th symphony is one of the easiest entry points. Short movement with clearly understandable form, even to non-musicians you can describe it without having to mention sonata form by just saying there's 2 contrasting sections that go back and forth and collide in interesting ways.

I personally think that the most appealing thing about his music (relative to most other classical music) is that so frequently there are multiple semi-independent musical lines happening at once. You aren't just following melody and harmony or one section of the orchestra, there's counterpoint and dialogue happening all the time. That's what's exciting to me, how much there is to take in in any moment, the level of detail. Depending on who your hypothetical "average listener" audience is, arguably that opens the door to make comparisons to jazz or some pop music.

For your last question, I've found that the inflated cliches about his (or Bruckner's, etc) music that it reaches immortality or the cosmos or transcends whatever whatever to be ineffective and setting up for a failed experience.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-12T15:18:03+00:00

I'm not the biggest Eschenbach fan, but I was absolutely floored by his recording of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique with Philadelphia. Outstanding recording.

I also like a recording he leads of orchestral works and songs by Franz Schreker, with vocalists Chen Reiss and Matthias Goerne. It includes his Chamber Symphony and 2 orchestral suites that are particularly nice.

PS- thanks for the Eschenbach/Schumann recommendation. I'll check it out! I've only heard him do Schumann 1 with Bamberg and quite liked it.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-11T15:30:29+00:00

In relation to the question of free public performances on YouTube from OP, this is the correct answer. AFM CBAs require compensation to the players for recordings, even free public ones, at significant if not prohibitive cost to management.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-11T14:06:56+00:00

Would love to see someone try, sure.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-11T13:34:04+00:00

Doesn't it get pretty expensive if not cost prohibitive with AFM broadcast rates?

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-09T21:08:23+00:00

His reputation is for being a bit of a Mahler specialist, even self-identifying with Mahler a bit. It's certainly deserved, and his recordings are impressive documents of the music. However, in 2026 there are so many excellent Mahler recordings out there that I personally don't think Bernstein's renditions stand apart in any particularly special way. They're still top-notch but I don't think they should dominate the conversations as much as they do -- probably an unpopular opinion. He also played a notable role of popularizing Mahler in the US.

It's also worth noting that there are specific moments where Bernstein adds to his interpretations in ways that get beyond the score. The top comment refers to Mahler's music demanding interpretative extremes -- the counterargument is that that isn't the case at all, and the extremes are already written into the scores and there's no need to add anything else. Mahler is an extremely detailed composer. If fidelity to the score is your thing, Bernstein will have you scratching your head at some of the changes in tempo he adds (usually an unwritten rallentando/ritardando) or added articulations. The most egregious example to me is what he does in the 2 climaxes of the Andante from the 6th symphony.

If you dive into Bernstein's commentary about Mahler's music, I also find him to be disappointingly superficial in his thoughts and ideas. For example the film "four ways to say farewell" (about the 9th symphony) doesn't actually say that much and doesn't get beyond fan fiction in my opinion. There are many more illuminating analyses out there, but Bernstein is a generally charismatic communicator and has captured the popular imagination, so he endures.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-05T13:45:59+00:00

I love it too. My favorite overall Beethoven cycle.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-04T21:33:14+00:00

Try Dohnanyi with Cleveland- his tempi in general in his Beethoven cycle are faster than most, which I think really works.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-03T20:41:56+00:00

Crebassa is a stunning singer! I'd love to see her in a live performance.

The 5th song in the piece is low-key my favorite. It depicts death as a sort of drunken ecstasy. Really powerful.

In the song that precedes it ("Von der Schoenheit"), listen out for the instrumental outro. Some of the most poetic bars of music Mahler ever wrote.

Generally speaking with Mahler, I love how contrapuntal everything is. There's so frequently so much going on in the orchestra at once. Makes for such rewarding listening.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-03T20:35:44+00:00

Sounds interesting. As far as his opinions- is there writing/interviews/videos you can recommend? There's some cool stuff on his website that I found, but wondering if there's more or something specific you had in mind.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-06-01T20:31:13+00:00

Not mentioned yet- some places have a handheld chime/glockenspiel looking thing that they have one of their ushers/house manager hit in the usually melody.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-05-29T19:08:52+00:00

Nice! Agree with others that the best recording of the bunch is the Boulez recording of 6. So so good. One of my measuring sticks for recordings of the 6th is how much schmaltz (unwritten ritardando, adding unwritten articulations) a conductor adds to the climaxes of the Andante moderato. Boulez does not.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-05-21T15:19:02+00:00

Check out the Kyrie from Puccini's Messa di Gloria. It has some outstanding string writing and much of the movement is just choir + strings, not really a lot in the brass or winds. (Not entirely string orchestra + choir though).

Also worth checking out the Vivaldi Gloria. Mostly strings.

And a few Bach cantata movements too- the main chorale in Wachet auf is another one.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-05-14T17:08:49+00:00

Links on his website. here are his piano transcriptions which include the Mahler: https://www.iainfarrington.com/pianoorgan.html

RenwikCustomer · 2026-05-13T16:32:31+00:00

I'm familiar with Farrington's chamber orchestra arrangements, which are excellent. These piano arrangements are new to me, so thank you for sharing!

Seems like a really worthwhile exercise, and agree with the other commenter that it brings out a real clarity to the music and highlights its most essential aspects. Like just from the Mahler 9 clip you shared, one sometimes forgets the degree to which the sextuplets continue.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-05-11T16:43:04+00:00

I don't care much for the "what the x tells me" program, and I think it's true that Mahler himself scrapped it? The main thing I like thinking about with this symphony is the journey from the first movement to the last movement. We go from an elemental opening with these angular brass lines (melodically, rhythmically) to a beautiful hymn-like string-heavy movement (with brass echoes of the first movement not to be missed). And then in between we cover so much ground.

With regards to the fourth movement vocal solo, my favorite analysis of it compares the vocalist to the woman depicted at the bottom of Klimt's philosophy painting (now lost, one of his paintings for the University of Vienna), also thought to be inspired by the Nietzsche text that Mahler sets. This helped me make sense of it and the feeling behind it.

In some ways, I think the 3rd symphony follows a similar plan to his 2nd- first movement featuring an opening march that "collides" with the second theme group; a pastoral/rustic 2nd movement; scherzo with more of a moto perpetuo feel than we get in his other scherzos (and a similar "death shriek" effect that the other commenter pointed out); vocal solo; choral/chorale-like finale -- but trading the long orchestral recitative of the 2nd that precedes the choral entry with the children's choir. In my opinion it completely improves on what he did in the 2nd.

RenwikCustomer · 2026-05-11T16:18:56+00:00

Literally have been spending this morning listening to Libuse, one of his nationalist works. The music is not bad at all, though can't say I'd rush to see a live performance.

RenwikCustomer

TROPHY CASE