The book, Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, published in 1983, was written by Lewis Thomas, a physician, and is a collection of essays on humanity, science, life and music. I’ve never read this highly praised and oft-quoted book, but I can imagine Thomas being inspired by Mahler’s Ninth and letting his thoughts pour out as the music washed over him.
Mahler’s 7th is the one that does it for me. It was my introduction to the composer some seventeen years ago when Simon Rattle (in his pre-Sir days) conducted the LA Philharmonic in three memorable concerts. I was fortunate enough to play guitar for those concerts, and Rattle’s version of this incredible work started me on a long journey to learn more about Mahler and his music, and although it’s not programmed nearly as often as his other symphonies, the 7th has become my favorite.
Maybe it’s the beauty and power of the opening movement, or possibly the “dance with the devil” scherzo of the third. The fifth’s quick cuts and juxtapositions have always entranced me, a dialogue which continually shifts perspective as fast as a film editor’s razor and just as cleanly. Or maybe, just maybe it’s the fact that there’s a place in the 4th movement for not only guitar, but for mandolin as well. Written for both a guitarist and a mandolinist, the instruments add a color and intimacy that cuts through the beautifully written strings and woodwinds to present a stirring in the forest’s “night music”.
I’ve just returned from the week’s first performance of this piece at Walt Disney Concert Hall with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting. I’ve always wanted to play this piece with him. There is no musician on Earth I respect more. Every chance to play with him is a lesson in music, style, knowledge and conducting.
In rehearsal this morning, I was so moved by the sound of the first movement. You could tell that something else was at work here, the sum of the parts doesn’t begin to explain it. This is what music is all about, still sensing that wonder, that incomprehensible grandeur that lifts us out of ourselves and transcends here and now. And at tonight’s concert, Salonen and the orchestra made it climb even higher, if this was at all humanly possible.
There’s a reason why many people, even east coasters, are talking and writing that the Los Angeles Philharmonic is the finest orchestra in the United States.
Listening to tonight’s concert confirms it.
*Mahler’s 7th Symphony and Webern’s Five Pieces for Orchestra will be performed again on Saturday January 13 at 8pm and Sunday January 14 at 2pm. I'm playing mandolin this time around and Brian Head is the guitarist.