Compositions In D Flat

get it right - yas

my students are learning numbers so i sent them the coolest arabic counting song i know.

Blumine is the redacted second movement of Mahler’s 1st symphony, so most recordings don’t include it. Full disclosure - only three of the Mahler 1 recordings I did close listens of (like close readings? does that term work?) included Blumine (Ormandy/Philadelphia Orchestra, Zinman/Tonhalle Orchestra, Judd/Florida Philharmonic), so I’m not a Blumine expert.

Of those three, though, I was blown away by James Judd. I posted his Blumine in full. That trumpet solo at the beginning is unreal. Judd takes the whole movement slower than others do, which makes it dreamlike and gorgeous, but also makes that trumpet solo all the harder. I’m no trumpeter (trumpetist? trumpeteer? point made.), but I’m fairly certain it’s HARD to sustain a high G for as long as Jeff Kaye does in that solo.

From the contradictory information that exists about this movement, it sounds like Mahler was ambivalent about it, and during an anti-Blumine phase he said of it: “The entire piece tender and flowing throughout! No ff!! No dragging!”

Judd definitely takes his time in places…drags even. So he, perhaps, mahlerized Mahler’s least Mahlerish movement.

Man, this is seriously beautiful. Again, props props props to that trumpet dude.

This is WILD. Haven’t heard anyone else do this. Here’s the music for reference:

The trumpets, instead of playing straight eighth notes, jump in just a millisecond early.  Very well done. I also love how loud and brassy they are (yeah, the brass are brassy, okay?). I can’t stop listening to this. Not a huge fan of Haitink’s interpretation of Mahler 1 as a whole, but this minute and a half of music is worth keeping it on my computer instead of my external hard drive.

Since it’s hard to keep all those accents straight, here’s a primer. So Haitink doesn’t quite execute those notes as Mahler intended, but who cares, music, NO RULES!!

I haven’t posted in a few days mainly because I haven’t had internet access, but also mainly because I think this funeral march is boring. I have to post it, though, because any discussion of Mahler 1 requires at least a mention of that intro bass solo. It’s Frere Jacques in a minor key, and I guess it was controversial at the time (1889 premiere), what with the juxtaposition of a srs funeral march with that klezmerish “street music” (which starts about halfway through this clip (more on that later)).

This is Bernstein’s version, which I chose because the funeral march moves and doesn’t plod along at a painfully glacial pace.

Now I’m going to quote:

An acid test for Mahler idiom is how the third movement is played. Most recordings and performances these days seem bent on prettifying it, most especially the opening double bass solo. You have to go back to conductors like Mitropoulos (Sony 62342 purchase) and Adler (Tahra TAH239240 purchase) to hear it played how I think Mahler intended it and these two recordings are essential for the Mahler completist and enthusiast, though some limited mono sonics have to be allowed for. In his keynote lecture to the 14^th Colorado Mahlerfest Donald Mitchell referred to how he had tried and failed to stop the principal double bass of one of the world’s great Mahler orchestras “beautifying that opening solo and thus stripping it of its intended character and above all of its power to shock.” I agree with Mitchell about this passage needing to deliver as much of its original “power to shock” and I long to hear modern performances where this is realised.

Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/Mahler/Mahler1.htm#ixzz1V822QrYj

I’m working on getting those two recordings (I almost feel like i have no business doing this without having heard Mitropoulos). Bernstein’s isn’t horrible, but I think that bass solo at the beginning often sounds…not that great? And it’s not raw/scratchy bad, which I would be into, and which I think is what that writer is getting at. It’s timid/pitchy bad. To be fair, it’s a very difficult solo.

Love the way Tilson Thomas (San Fran Symphony) does this excerpt from the 1st movement of Mahler 1. a little Bernstein-esque. dragging it out, making us beg for it, total drama. He really hits the ground running after that climactic cymbal crash, which I can’t decide if I like. Still, this is solid.

I should add that I say Bernstein-esque, but Svetlanov’s recording with the Russian State Symphony, as well as James Judd’s with the Florida Philharmonic are also satisfyingly drawn-out and dramatic. I can’t keep track of who is mimicking/inspired by whom.