Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.9 Movement III In his introduction to the symphonic works of Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein claims that each movement of the Ninth Symphony is a farewell in itself, which then feeds into the overriding themes of farewell and death. The first movement is a farewell to passion and Read more…
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.9 Movement II The second movement has been said to be a ‘dance of death’ or Todtentanz for the original German translation. Adorno was one of the first to publicly characterize this movement, alongside critic Paul Bekker. This movement resonates a previous symphony by Mahler, the Fourth, which uses Read more…
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.9 Genesis & Movement I Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), composed his Ninth Symphony in the last few years of his life between 1909 and 1910. This Ninth Symphony was the last work that Mahler completed before his death in 1911 (whilst he was part-way through the Tenth Symphony). The Read more…
Jay Ungar: Ashokan Farewell Context Today’s blog is going differ from all the others as this is a tribute post for someone who taken from us far too soon – our Bryony. Life is incredibly precious, and it’s important to remember how fragile we really are. So I hope some of Read more…
Frederick Delius: The Walk to the Paradise Garden Context The Walk to Paradise Garden wasn’t actually a part of Delius’ initial set up of the opera and it was only added in before the Berlin premiere in 1906 (with the first every premiere being in 1901). The piece is between scenes 5 Read more…
Richard Strauss: Horn Concerto No.1 Context Richard Strauss was born 11th June 1864, which places him within the romantic era of classical music and Strauss soon became a forefront composer within German romanticism. His father, Franz Strauss was principal horn player at Court Opera in Munich and gave Strauss countless music Read more…