Over the year, we’ll be gathering personal perspectives on Mahler from the conductors and others involved with the Birmingham Mahler Cycle, and posting them here. We’ll also keep an eye out for ‘Mahler in the news’ – do send us links to any stories you spot too.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra have a great interview with Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski about Mahler on their website: http://www.lpo.org.uk/about/jurowski-multimedia.html. Jurowski and the LPO perform Mahler’s 4th Symphony as part of the Birmingham Mahler Cycle on 2 December.
CBSO Chorus Director Simon Halsey shares his perspective on Mahler and the cycle:
Author, columnist and blogger Norman Lebrecht writes on the theme ‘My Mahler’:
‘What brought me to Mahler was the word, before the music. Reading his widow Alma’s memories and letters, published at a time when his music was politically suppressed, I was overwhelmed by the ferocity of her ambivalence and needed to know more about a man who could inspire so tormented a commitment. The music opened out, for me, like a herbaceous maze, at once aesthetic and perplexing. I knew I could spend my life luxuriating in its beauties and searching for the solution. At my lowest moments I reach for Das Lied von der Erde. At my happiest ones too.’
