Why Mahler is in the LA groove
Why MahlerFrom the LA Phil’s marketing suite:
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Very serious, classical, German music, entirely focussing on emotional conflicted interiority and very far removed from the noises of the world, has to be translated to fit the perception framework of innocent Californians.
I wonder, would audiences feel a bit puzzled or even disappointed if they find-out that Mahler does not particularly sound like upbeat jazz, hiphop or soothing film music?
Give it a rest, John. While KDFC and KUSC (same company) may not be the great classical radio stations on the planet (far from it, I’m sure), London is the home of that embarrassment that’s known as FM Magazine. Mahler has very much been in the repertoire of both the S.F. Symphony and L.A. Phil., ever since the ‘Mahler boom’ of the 1960’s. I heard plenty of fine Mahler performances in S.F. with Edo DeWaart, going clear back to the early 1980’s. There are nearly 40 million people in California. In spite of all the often pointed out problems here, CA is now the fourth largest economy in the entire world. Just due to the sheer numbers, there are as many people who are as well versed in most things Mahler, if not everything Mahler, as pretty much anywhere else. I’m one of them! My view of the classical music world is very Mahler-centric, because I came out of a background of winds, brass and percussion. Yet, I like plenty of chamber music and string orchestra music as well. You really don’t have to go to Amsterdam, Vienna or New York to become engaged in a fairly intelligent conversation about G.M.’s music. I’ve met people who lived out in the boondocks of northern CA who really knew their stuff.
I’m happy to hear the Californian groove works well.
… and why Mahler is not in the Chicago groove:
“I have some problems with [Mahler’s] symphonies (…) the loud finales will always get you lots of applause.”
“But my attitude toward Mahler can change. I’m not young, but it’s possible I will change my mind and become a Mahler fan. You never know.”
“Today, everybody conducts Mahler. Mahler pays well. Even if you do not conduct a good performance of a Mahler symphony, the success is still there because (…) all the finales are very loud (…).”
(Riccardo Muti)
Apparently, The Maestro has never heard either the 4th or the 9th.
…nor the sweet tunes of the Chinaman in “Das Lied von der Erde”.
Such moronic statements. All the Italian opera composers he purportedly admires invariably end their ouvertures or operas with loud, cheap, vulgar and what’s worse, harmonically hyper-predictable bangs.
Abbado used to conduct Mahler by memory. Muti should be honest and say he can’t conduct Mahler. Too sophisticated for his intellectual vulgarity.
Are these signed copies?
We know that Mahler, during his NY tenure, secretly visisted jazz clubs at night, climbing from the hotel window after Alma had fallen asleep on many pills. He finally wanted to have some real fun during these years. (Source: Henri de la Grange: ‘Mahler’s Final Pleasures’)
Well, no….
It is said that he was encouraged by Ferocious Boosoni.
I remember the “Mahler Grooves” stickers, buttons and sweatshirts that the L.A. Mahler Society sold in the 1970s. I still have a button, but the sweatshirt is long gone.
I had that orange “Mahler Grooves” bumper sticker on my ’74 Gremlin.
During the 2019 Bernstein Centennial celebration there was a display of Lenny’s Mahler 6 score with “Mahler Grooves across the opening page of the score.
A bird told me the real reason is most wealthy backers of symphony orchestras are of Jewish descent.
L.A. Phil’s Mahler Grooves marathon also featured high school orchestras…which played poorly. I don’t think Mahler is for kids, it is neither healthy technically nor emotionally for kids.
What the heck are you babbling about? Your first sentence is not worthy of any comment. As for your absurd second sentence my son, who was a seven year participant in Gustavo Dudamel’s Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA) (from 10 years to 17) and currently a student on full scholarship at Berklee College of Music/Boston Conservatory @ Berklee, was one of the 35 alumni flown back to L.A. to play in Sunday’s Mahlerthon. This full orchestra played movement 4 of Mahler’s 1st Symphony. Not only did Maestro Dudamel take time from his busy schedule to conduct at the final rehearsals, he also spent time discussing with the young musicians Mahler’s youthful age when he composed the “Titian” and the context in which it was written. On March 2nd. the musicians in Y.O.L.A blew the roof off of Disney Hall. A new generation of Mahler lovers was born, many of which attended classes at Y.O.L.A. from the economically disadvantaged ghettos of Los Angeles. Last Sunday, Mahler spoke to and musically encouraged these young performers that they too are capable of having their voices heard through symphonic music.
Leonard Bernstein’s groovy Mahler jumper was there first.
Do your homework Norman. Those Mahler Grooves bumper stickers were originally given out to the members of the Mahler Society of America based in LA back in the 60s.
Ugh. So tired of Mahler and Duda’s Mahler fetish, NYP can have it. Can we pleeeease move on to Boulez with Esa-Pekka and Jean-Pierre Aimaird now?
LOL
Correct of auto-correct: Pierre-Laurent Aimard.
John Borstlap: “…would audiences feel a bit puzzled or even disappointed if they find-out that Mahler does not particularly sound like upbeat jazz, hiphop or soothing film music?”
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Although some comments in this thread indicate the “cool & now!” PR approach to Mahler dates back over 30 years, there is enough so-called earworm qualities to his compositions that at least fans of movie scores shouldn’t feel too estranged. But fans of jazz and certainly rap and hiphop attending a concert of Mahler due to “He’s of today!” hype may feel they’ve been the victims of false advertising.
Fans of discordant music, such as used for a film’s scene that shows a murder or late-night stalking, may feel the same way.
Incidentally, I’ve observed for the past 10-plus years more and more people in all types of categories (age, gender, racial, etc) listening to rap music. I admit that when I notice that, I personally SMH. To each his own, however, and c’est la vie.
For many people, what’s primitive is easier, it does not feel that actually, you should do something better, people feel much more at home when their underdeveloped tastes are vindicated instead of scorned by the presence of something that is better. Also it is so democratic, to feel that any taste is OK and as good as any other. The type of music someone likes, is a mirror and, for other people, an unintended revelation of their inner self.
You have to read the fine print about the LA-based Mahler lovers 50 years ago to learn the impetus for the Philharmonic’s marketing campaign, but yes, back in the late ’70s, a dedicated Mahler enthusiast named Avik Gilboa launched the LA chapter of the Gustav Mahler Society. Born in Palestine in 1929, Gilboa moved to LA as a teen but joined a group of volunteers to fight with the Israeli army in 1948. He was captured and spent the duration of the Palestine War in a prison in Lebanon. He returned to Los Angeles where he taught Russian and American history for three decades, and he travelled around the Eurasian continent – from Europe to India to Russia – in his VW bus. As a contributing writer-photographer to Israeli movie magazines, he was a longtime member of the Hollywood Foreign Press that hands out the Golden Globe Awards each year.
As president-for-life of the Mahler Society, it wasn’t uncommon to see Gilboa handing out flyers for Society events in the lobby of Chandler Pavilion when the LA Philharmonic performed a Mahler Symphony. He hosted seminars in private homes, featuring Mahler luminaries the likes of Henry-Louis de la Grange and Zubin Mehta. But the highlight of the year was the annual Mahlerthon on the first Saturday in June. They were casual affairs, held in his or another member’s living room. From 7 in the morning until well past midnight, he spun vintage recordings of the nine Mahler symphonies plus “Das Lied”; he added the Tenth to the playlist in the ‘90s after it accumulated a number of quality recordings. People could come and go as they pleased, let themselves into the house (no doorbell ringing!), sit down on the floor and hear recordings by Walter, Rosbaud, Mengelberg, Bernstein, Boulez, Barbirolli for an hour or all day long. Avik Gilboa died in 2014.
For Californian hi tech nerds who have no time to listen to Mahler concerts there is a compact form which gets you everything compressed (one minute):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BASClDeESu8