Prom 29: Friday 5th August at 7.30. p.m. (Mahler 2)

[doversoul1]

PE or PT, it was mental torture to me. I often wonder if music education might have the same kind of effect on those who just cannot do it. No point in telling them that they don’t have to be good. They know they are no good and they know everyone knows they are no good, and they know there are some who can do it and are very good at it. What a thing to realise when you are nine…

Sorry, back to Mahler.

[Petrushka]

Late to the party again, having spent the previous three nights in the RAH, I agree with many on here who were put off by the slow speeds but found it uplifting. Mary Chambers is quite right to say you would have to have a heart of stone not to have been moved by this. Certainly, from Urlicht on this was simply tremendous. From my seat in M Stalls I was not aware of any inaudible music.

[johnb]

I realise there is much more to the perception of whether music is 'slow' than simplistic timings but, for what it's worth -

Earlier this year the live Tennstedt recording of Mahler 2 was rightly praised. Guess which has the longer timings for all five movements!

Incidentally, for me the Mahler 2 one of the highlights of the Proms so far (perhaps even 'the' highlight). In spite of the possible criticisms there was a real sense of it being a special event and it had a real excitement and 'liveness' about it that many 'better' performances somehow miss.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sadly, there are many for whom the "crotchet = 126.589" is much more important than the feel of the music. I'm not sure whether this is just a compulsive-obsessive characteristic, or whether there's truth in the claim that musicians tend to be higher on the autistic spectrum. I am in agreement with Barenboim, who says that the verbal marking (Allegro Maestoso, etc) is what is important, rather than the metronome figure.

[Mary Chambers]

If I had been forced to do maths and PE (gym, games) in the sixth form I would never have gone into higher education. I'd probably have left school at sixteen to avoid them. I loathed both.

To read English at university I didn't even have to have GCE O-level maths. In addition to other basic subjects like English, French and history, Latin and one science (in my case biology, which I loved) were enough. How lucky I was!

[Pianophile]

Does anybody else remember a televised version with Bernstein conducting the Mahler 2nd from Lincoln Cathedral (or did I imagine it)?
Anna - how I envy you, setting out on your Mahlerian journey of discovery! Haitink and Klemperer are always worth considering, by the way.

I wonder if this is the televised performance you mean? It has the added bonus of glorious Janet Baker as the mezzo soloist. I think it might be Ely Cathedral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf5fM1i3MGQ

Best wishes

[cavatina]

Mary Chambers is quite right to say you would have to have a heart of stone not to have been moved by this.

Like I said, I got chills down my spine-- which some researchers take as the definition of being "moved by music"-- but didn't weep. There's nothing wrong with my ability to emotionally respond to music: since then, I wept at the Brahms, choked up at the next Mahler performance, and practically drenched myself at the Cadogan concert during Liszt's Liebesträume.

Just because you can't comprehend how a sensitive person could be put off by this interpretation doesn't make it right for you to universally slam everyone who doesn't agree with you. I'd never dream of faulting you for enjoying it; why not extend others the same courtesy?

[Norfolk Born]

I wonder if this is the televised performance you mean? It has the added bonus of glorious Janet Baker as the mezzo soloist. I think it might be Ely Cathedral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf5fM1i3MGQ

Best wishes

I do believe it is - recorded in 1973 and presumably broadcast soon after, round about the time we got our first colour TV. I had the wrong cathedral, though I wasn't that far out geographically. Many thanks!

[Bax-of-Delights]

Yes, I remember this. Humphrey Burton was the announcer.

It was on ITV and there were commercial adverts between the first and second movements.

[Dave2002]

If I had been forced to do maths and PE (gym, games) in the sixth form I would never have gone into higher education. I'd probably have left school at sixteen to avoid them. I loathed both.

To read English at university I didn't even have to have GCE O-level maths. In addition to other basic subjects like English, French and history, Latin and one science (in my case biology, which I loved) were enough. How lucky I was!

Mary and Chris Newman
I decided to start a thread over on Platform 3 - http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...tion-in-the-UK about maths.

Right now, listening to the repeat of Mahler 2 again - blast - it's got to me again ...... ........ Just one of those pieces. Must go and get a bucket. The ending is absolutely magnificent. Up there with Strauss 4 Last Songs.

[Nick Armstrong]

It was on ITV and there were commercial adverts between the first and second movements.

[Roehre]

It was on ITV and there were commercial adverts between the first and second movements.

Well, Mahler asks for a pause of at least 5 minutes here

[Petrushka]

Yes, I remember this. Humphrey Burton was the announcer.

It was on ITV and there were commercial adverts between the first and second movements.

Humphrey Burton was the director and it was broadcast on Easter Day, 1973 on ITV and was indeed from Ely Cathedral for which Bernstein had some affection.

I used to see HB regularly in the audience at the Proms - how is he these days, anybody know?

[BetweenTheStaves]

Many thanks for that link, Pianophile. I never think to look at YouTube for this sort of thing...completely forgetting that I have used it in the past to 'audition' as it were a singer performing at an opera that I'm interested in attending. It's a shame about the lack of lip sync (or anything even close) but still, just shut your eyes and listen.

I just watched the TV recording of the Dudamel. As others have said the two singers are quite sublime and the mezzo's opening bars are exquisite. The choral singing is also to a remarkably high standard. And as I listed to the closing movement, tears did come into my eyes....due to the music. Simple as that.

It's just that Dudamel's tempo just does not engage me ..I constantly found myself reaching for the fast forward button...as compared to the above YouTube link that drew me in immediately. For me Dudamel's conducting of this work can be summed up in three words - ponderous, stodgy and leaden.

[BBMmk2]

I was not the only one then, BetweenTheStaves. I felt not moved by this performance at all. I agree, the tempi and the playing to was not of a high standard. I know, ithey are a youth orchestra but then the BBC should give this to anorchestra that could handle this better. I do not recall the BBC PO playing Mahler?