Video - Sinforial - Gustav mahler no. 4

sinforial.de presents the sinfo.tübingen a Video Sinforial Mahler 4 Hello and a warm welcome. We are the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Music School of Tübingen I am Kiril Stankow, the conductor. Today, we will make our first own video tutorial for a symphony that we are currently playing. It is the Symphony No. 4 by Gustav Mahler - It is such a brilliant opus and we thought: Gosh, we've had so many great moments and inspiration from it, we would like to share this. Today, we are going to do that. Almost every symphony has a story to tell. This story is told from the first movement to the last one. We will show you "Where are we going from here?" and listen: What is the last movement? Where are we in the symphony? Johanna, would you come, please? Johanna Pommranz, Soprano "We enjoy the heavenly pleasures, and therefore avoid the earthly ones. No worldly tumult is to be heard in heaven. All live in greatest peace." "We enjoy the heavenly pleasures" sings the soprano voice. In fact: We have arrived in paradies. The paradise of Gustav Mahler: The final point of the journey; When life on earth ends. Then, the transition into the next form of existence. No one knows no one will ever know. There are people and religion claiming to know. What we can say is, "maybe." That "maybe," the question is central to this Symphony No. 4. Where does the journey take us? At a very young age, Mahler was confronted with death. His beloved brother, his companion indeed, died from an illness. At that time, it was quite common for young children to die. It sounds horrible, but it is true. Nevertheless, it is never easy. There is a famous author, a poet called Friedrich Rückert, who lost a child. His own child. At the end of the 19th century he could not cope with it. So, he wrote 400 poems about the topic of child death. Later, Gustav Mahler set this to music; "Songs On The Death Of Children." A sad part of the biography of Gustav Mahler is that in this Symphony No. 4, he showed in his composition how a child ascends to heaven, the child dies. A few years later, he lost his daughter himself. The question you have as a composer afterwards, when you know what you are dealing with, are Did you provoke it maybe? You feel guilty somehow, I think, it is hard to imagine. In 1907, 4 years before Mahler's death, he lost his daughter. The music, being composed after this, I would like you to listen to it, if you like the Symphony No. 4 by G.Mahler. Engage yourself in it. So, we take it back to the 4th movement of the Symphony No.4. We are in paradise, in heaven. The journey there is one with different steps. There are 3 movements we will listen to at first. The 1st movement deals with the time while you are alive. Death is not the topic at all, the act of dying is not mentioned. Maybe illness, but nothing serious. Sometimes. Not "serious" in terms of "We know something will happen." It starts with a wonderful situation. Let's listen to it. In the beginning, we have this instrument, these cheeky sleigh bells. [Marian...] [Thank you!] A sleigh ride! This far small bell, sounds so much like Christmas, it is literally the bell sounding for the liberated atmosphere, which makes me think: Mahler certainly wanted this. If he said It is Christmas time, it is a time, maybe with above average people with a cold, and weak people, small people, sadly, are carried off. I do not dare to say that. But the association is in your mind. This association is something cosy, something cheeky, and something that reminds you of home. Home as in homeland. This 1st movement of the Symphony Nr. 4 contains surprisingly many themes and motives, composed by Mahler. Usually, you have two, or maximum three. Here, we have 7 pieces, I do not want to show all, but a few important ones. Let's imagine: Indeed, there is this lovely little child, having a cold and in bed. Outside, there is a sleigh ride. Everyone is in a Christmas mood, looking forward to getting presents, the little brothers and sisters jump around the bed, having a lot of fun. Let's listen to how it sounds. You can imagine it pretty well, right? There comes the little brother, mixing up the pillows, etc. Then come the parents, who are a little bit more concerned, but in a good way, caring and loving. They take the child into their arms and look how he is doing. Is the child feverish? And so on. Let's listen a bit further. Isn't it beautiful? It is hard to create or compose music that makes you feel like this is soothing my soul. Music is a different thing for everyone. I don't know what you or you or you associate with it. The way how it is played, intimate and profound, it is also soothing my soul. I would be very happy if there are other opinions, too, and I knew about it. I am very curious about what you think, what you hear. Another small particle, being very exciting and sinister, "tender" is the word for the first movement, is the duet of oboe and bassoon. It is very cute. Let's listen to it. There it was. That is the point where the little brother wants his playfellow back. "When are you back?" is the nice question. Let's go further. When conditions worsen, people worry. They think: What if the ill person really dies and will not be present on earth anymore. Then there is a little hope given by religion for example, spirituality in general or engaging with... ...what should we call it? Maybe: engaging with what comes afterwards. However, Mahler's spiritual answer is beautiful. 4 flutes are playing, calling us from a paradise far away. Let's have a look. Sounds tempting. There is something childish to it, and something not threatening at all, but almost inviting, so you think, aah, that can be soothing. I think this is exactly how it's meant to be. The climax of the movement is of course something dealing with young children. Children, playfully frolicking like crazy in this situation. Mahler composed this moment of playfulness very well. Then, there is this moment where the playfulness is stopped. It is stopped by a worried parent. It is a kind of escape. It is quite amusing: Everybody's playing, pillow fighting, and then "Dad's coming!" So, everybody's fleeing, and has to run away very quickly. Everyone has to be innocent, in bed, and be like "Yes, I am getting better." Let's give it a listen. Everybody's running away, being alert. And then there is silence. The door opens, "Everything fine?" - "Of course!" Everybody is quite innocent. At the end of the 1st movement, we don't know how serious the situation is, how threatening the disease. But soon we will know how serious it is and how threatening. The 1st movement ends with a little get-out dance. That is the moment when the door closes again, Mum and Dad say; Fine, the child's asleep. Then it happens: The situation is serious. More serious than we thought. Mahler thought about how to present the situation, to propose the question: How is the transition from life to death? What is it, when people have such a strong will to survive, what makes them give up at a certain point? There is brother Hein and Godfather Death, the so-called "Grim Reaper," in some movies, it is Brad Pitt, taking people away from life. In the 2nd movement, a little skeleton does that, quite a funny character. The skeleton has a fiddle and it swirls around the child's soul, flatters the child's soul, and soliciting the child to follow. Mahler did a great job there. It is not threating, it makes you think: "It sounds exciting, let's see, oh..." It takes quite a long time for the soul to give in. In the end, the skeleton suceeds and takes the child. I'd like to show how it is done. Mahler thought about two funny things. First, there is the violin which is tuned a tone higher. A so-called Scordatura. The sound is a bit ludicrous, supports the absurdity of the character, the bony skeleton. You can hear the bones rattling and how everything's shaking when the skeleton is dancing. It also shows that the sound of this violin, this tone, this colour, is pointing in another direction, to an extrateresstrial place. Could we have a listen? Rebecca now has got a different violin. This violin is tuned one whole tone higher. Please play the main theme. Does it sound different now? Maybe not for the first time, but let's listen to it again, how it sounds on a normal violin. Friederike, please just play only the first tones of the theme. Now, you both play the emprty A string. That is quite a gap! Again, the beginning of the theme, original violin. It is an obvious difference in colour. Mahler plays a lot with it. Let's listen to the beginning of the movement. Pay attention to it. The solo violin is playing it over and over again. It is something like snake charming. Ensnaring the soul the whole time, and always [sings] In the background, you can hear the bones clashing, making funny noises. A funny character, this guy. Not threatening at all. Exactly, this is it. This funny way of dancing. Someone's approaching you and says "Hi, how are you?" which does not seem threatening, but looks so strange and weird. Face of bones, violin in hand, playing a wonderful song. It makes you laugh a little. Then it starts to tell you where it comes from and where it wants to take her, the little girl. This is beautiful music, creating a wonderful atmosphere. We will listen to this in a minute. At the end, the child senses that she has to leave the world in which she is living right now. There is a little cry of panic. Listen to it, please. Noticed it? If not, do it again. No problem. It goes on and on. She senses where the journey goes. Yet, she doesn't give up, she does not want to end her life yet. And the skeleton keeps on canvassing. Then it tells a bit more about paradise. Let's listen to it. Also tempting. All in all, it plays the song 3 times for her. Then she keeps thinking, more and more, of maybe following the skeleton. At the end, she takes its bone hand, they start walking and leave. In the last moment, the skeleton turns around and twinkles at the camera. Listen to it. [With prelude] The end of the 2nd movement. The skeleton won, the girl followed. She holds the bony hand. It is something voluntary. You can't say "she was taken." She really decided to go with the skeleton. And here we are in the 3rd movement. There is a calm music in the 3rd movement. "Calm" is the word used by Mahler to show us conductors what kind of atmosphere and tempo we use. And "calm" is the way it is supposed to be. A face, really calm and self-balanced. Charakterised by music. Probably you are aware of it: There are these people having this kind of wonderful aura. Something deep. And some even have this aura when their eyes are closed. Yet, they are still interesting. It makes you stare, you can't look away. Why? Also Mahler asked why. In our case, there is this face expressing something expressing a theme dealing with death and the act of dying. The 3rd movement is where it happens. The 3rd movement is the transition from earth to paradise. Let's listen to the beginning. To be honest: This slow movement is part of the most beautiful music ever composed. We can only show parts of this movement because it is so very slow. It almost takes 20 minutes. The last moment the last breath in your life. Mahler melodized it. During the piece, the girl remembers the good times her last thoughts. Shortly before the movement ends, there is this unbelievably big outburst. This outburst is the moment when the pearly gates open and there is God inviting us to come to paradise. Let's listen to the short moment before. And then how it continues. It hurts when you have to stop that is why here is a little clue: Listen to the movement until it ends. Now, the soul is on the other side and human life on earth is over. This postlude that follows is something you can't describe. You can only listen to it, and then discover it for yourself. This was the third movement. In a moment, we will have the fourth one. The fourth one is the end of our journey. Paradise is the destination. A very optimistic thought. This is also the message that Mahler wanted to send into the world: Optimism. Power and boldness to enjoy life and to know: Everything will be fine. Mahler now adds a singer. We have already had that at the beginning but didn't talk about it. Now, the singer appears and tells us about heavenly joys. The text is quite crazy. It's about a lot of saints cooking and playing music. It is a bit like talking from the inside of paradise and we people, who aren't there yet, we can't quite comprehend. To us, it will always sound crazy and weird, until the moment when we get to paradise. Then we see it with different eyes: "This is what they were talking about! Aah!" Suddenly, everything is alright. However, this symphony does not really have an end. It ends with a big silence. In a concert, - and I wish that you will hear this in a concert this piece - In a concert, you don't really know: Do I hear this? Do I hear the harp and the contrabasses or is the sound already in my body? Sometimes, it is that soft. Thank you so much for joining us on this journey! We are the Young Symphony Orchestra of the Tübingen Music School. I am Kril Stankow and now I would like to have our super sololoist Johanna Pommranz here in front of us and we play a little bit of the last movement. Goodbye! "There is just no music on earth that can compare to ours. Even the eleven thousand virgins venture to dance, and Saint Ursula herself has to laugh. There is just no music on earth that can compare to ours. Cecilia and all her relations make excellent court musicians. The angelic voices gladden our senses, so that all awaken for joy." This Sinforial was made with the voluntary help of our film team Samuel Aubert Audio Valentin Stötzer Camera, Cutting [Subtitles] Thomas Staiger Camera, Lighting Cornelis Theuer Steadycam Anton Stötzer Producer & Cutting With the friendly assistance of the Local Media Centre Tübingen. sinforial.de 2013 [Subtitles: Jennifer Grünler] This Video-Sinforial ist licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License. Copyright (c) 2013, Anton Stötzer. Some Rights Reserved