Mahler

[oliver sudden]

For me it’s more the middle reaches of the second movement that risks straining my patience… if the performers aren’t very careful indeed it can turn into an absolute cavalcade of kitsch.

[Petrushka]

In concert, I have simply gritted my teeth and suffered Part One. But, as the last time I heard it live was some time ago, I wondered if I might have mellowed towards it but neither Mäkelä or Fabio Luisi - to which I also listened - can persuade me of any merits which it might possess.

I've not heard the 8th for a long time and as the Mäkelä is download only, for the time being, I've not heard that either.

Hurwitz says in his video that the first movement doesn't need a conductor, it needs a traffic cop, something I think a conductor also said, possibly Solti, I'm not sure.

Yes, it's a bit of a scream-fest but many of the themes used in this first movement are used again and transformed in the second part, most especially the theme at Accende lumens sensibus which is the key theme in Part 2 and of the whole work. This first part can be absolutely mind-blowing in a live performance with all that extra brass but it does make sense when the connections between the two parts are clearly grasped.

[Roslynmuse]

Maybe it's inevitable that such a vast piece should be uneven and provoke mixed responses. I think - despite the thematic connections - the language of the two parts is quite different. Part 2 harks back to the Wunderhorn symphonies in style, whereas the extreme polyphony of Part 1 (often tortuous) is really unlike anything else Mahler wrote. I've played the vocal score in choir rehearsals many times and it is always a relief to get past the Latin and back to German. [I feel about Mahler 8 as I do about Rach 3rd Piano Concerto - mostly I quite dislike it, but the ending is so wonderful that I forget that I haven't much enjoyed the previous 35 mins!]

[smittims]

The eighth is for me the odd one out, and I think it helps to know that although it wasn't premiered till 1910 he wrote it at an unusually optimistic time of his life, before his heart diagnosis; also it was always intended as a more public work than his other symphonies .

I came to know it at the same time as Gurrelieder , and , as with the Mauretania and the Titanic , the two works have superficial similarities but deeply significant differences. Gurrelieder is much easier on the mind , and to me more enjoyable, but Mahler's 8th asks more questions and is more thought-provoking.

[gurnemanz]

The Eighth is a special event. Getting a performance on the road is already an achievement. I first heard it in concert under Herbert Kegel in Leipzig in 1973. I know that the performance date had to be postponed once simply because all the pieces were not in place. Delighted to see that it has appeared on YouTube: Mahler: 8. Sinfonie (Leipzig 1973 Kegel - Casapietra Breul Burmeister Pohl; Goldberg Lorenz Polster)

Only quite recently did I get to know the phenomenal Horenstein 1959 event via BBC Legends (MusicWeb review). I have good recordings by Leonard Bernstein, Rafael Kubelik, Klaus Tennstedt, George Solti and Michael Gielen but find that I tend to sit down and listen to the Eighth less than the others.