Mahler Month

I discovered that I happen to own recordings of all of Mahler's symphonies! Some I had purchased for classes, others were on a CD I bought for some other piece I wanted. Since I have them all, and even multiple recordings for some of the symphonies (was 4 that popular?), I decided to make January "listen to Mahler's music" month.

I find his music deceptively controlling and twisted. He always starts out with something simple, vaguely reminiscent of music you have heard before somewhere, perhaps in your childhood. You find yourself enchanted and flowing along with things until you suddenly realize he has taken you somewhere you didn't want to go. Someplace macabre, uninviting, dark.

At about the moment you realize you are not comfortable, he slips back to the sunny side of things, and you think you must have dreamed up the odd path. You bob along for awhile, settling back in, and then find yourself uncomfortable again, hearing not what you thought was coming, but edgy music, velvet with a steel spine, patriotism with blood, dessert with a bitter twang.

Yes, I know he was dealt some raw deals in life. His music is full of the slightly sour, slightly bitter, slightly off taste. Not overwhelmingly so. There are such beautiful, poignant, soaring moments, such fullness and grandeur. Yet inside, that kick. I am not sure how long I can continue inundating myself with his sounds, but it is interesting to intake so much of a single composer at once. I am used to Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, or Rachmaninov in larger doses. But even then I have not listened to hours of their repertoire uninterrupted by other gentler musics.

Well, we shall see.