Notes on
Gustav Mahler's Fourth
Symphony
The premiere of Gustav
Mahler's Fourth Symphony
conducted by the composer
himself in Munich on
November 25, 1901 was
negatively received by most
of the audience and critics.
"All technique, calculation
and inner hypocrisy,
childlike supermusic,"
remarked one reviewer. The
negative response led Mahler
to feel that performing the
work again would be risky,
and for the time being he
was right. Reviewers in
Frankfurt shortly afterwards
spoke of "half-baked ideas",
"fantastical cacophonous
formations" and
"tastelessness". As Mahler`s
friend the violinist Natalie
Bauer-Lechner reports,
critics in Berlin also
"angrily attacked Mahler and
his work and sprinkled him
with the liquid manure of
their insults, mockery and
scorn more viciously than
ever, which made him very
bitter." In 1903 the
composer concluded that the
symphony was "a persecuted
stepchild which has as yet
experienced littlejoy in the
world".
When his
friend and colleague Ernst
von Schuch and the "Royal
Music Chapel” presented the
Fourth Symphony in Dresden
for the first time at the
Semper Opera on March 17,
1908, the response was not
much better, though the work
was now perhaps trivialized
more than it was reviled.
"One must know his Sixth to
be able to judge how far he
can go in making a noise and
creating a sensation. By
comparison, the Fourth
Symphony is a veritable
idyll, in spite of certain
odd trivialities and trivial
oddities." Mahler`s art is
"in its core of
Mendelssohnian provenance,
draped with the latest
developments that Berlioz
set in motion. In addition
to many elements inspired by
other composers, there are
outbursts of personal
emotion"; but the composer
finally brings everything
into equilibrium - by means
of "drollness". Indeed, the
debut of the
eighteen-year-old Canadian
violinist Kathleen Parlow, a
pupil of Leopold Auer, as
soloist in Tchaikovsky's
Violin Concerto seemed far
interesting and attractive
to reviewers than the new
symphonic work on that same
concert programme.
The Fourth is today
undoubtedly among Gustav
Mahler's most often
performed and accessible
works - a "lyrical symphony"
with a vocal final movement,
which in its distinctly
Classical way strikes many a
tender, cheerful tone. In
contrast to the Second and
Third Symphonies, it again
takes up the four-movement
scheme and omits the
trombones and tubas, but
calls for an "improved"
percussion section; the
orchestration brings greater
chamber-music transparency
and the temporal dimensions
are appreciably reduced
(just the first movement of
the Third Symphony is only
slightly shorter than the
entire Fourth).
"All I
actually wanted to write was
a symphonic humoresque, but
it took on the dimensions of
a normal symphony,"
recollected Gustav Mahler.
The work is based on "Das
himmlische Leben" (the
heavenly life), a work for
solo voice and orchestra
that Mahler wrote in Hamburg
in 1892 as part of his
settings of texts from Des
Knaben Wunderhorn. He
originally intended to use
it to end the Third
Symphony, but decided
against doing so. When he
began working on the Fourth
Symphony in 1899, he took
the unusual step of basing
the entire work on it and
used it for the final
movement.
Mahler had
been directing the Vienna
Hofoper and conducting the
Philharmonic concerts for
two years at the time and
only had time to compose
during the summer holidays,
which he spent in the
country. In 1899 he chose
the Salzkammergut bathing
resort of Bad Aussee, which
proved to be far less
peaceful than expected.
Although he composed
"despite impediments
wherever he could, even
whilst going walking"
(Natalie Bauer-Lechner), a
draft of the first three
movements is all he seems to
have achieved. After the
following, extremely
exhausting season, he
occupied a house of his own
in Maiernigg on Wörthersee
in June 1900. There he
resumed work on the Fourth
Symphony, withdrawing into
the seclusion of his
separate "composing lodge"
for several hours a day and
making a pleasant discovery:
"We know that our alter ego
is busy while we sleep,
developing and creating what
our conscious selves have
failed to achieve. Artists
in particular experience
that countless times. But
the way my alter ego has
worked on my fourth symphony
during ten months of
hibernation is incredible!"
(Natalie Bauer-Lechner). He
finished composing the work
on August 5,1900, completing
the score in Vienna in
January the following year.
The joy Mahler expresses in
this symphony is neither
altogether untroubled nor
free of contrary feelings.
As he once said to Natalie
Bauer-Lechner: "It is the
cheerfulness of a higher
world, one which is strange
to us and has something
ghastly and horrifying about
it." And another time he
said: "What I envisioned was
immensely difficult to
execute. Think of an
undifferentiated sky-blue,
which is more difficult to
achieve than a blue with
changing and contrasting
hues. That is the basic mood
of the whole. Only sometimes
it darkens and becomes
spookily scary, but it is
not the sky itself which
changes: it retains that
eternal blue. Only to us
does it suddenly become
grisly, just as one is often
seized by panic on a
beautiful day in a forest
drenched in light." Giuseppe
Sinopoli returns to this
quotation in the
introductory commentary
reproduced below, which
deals with this symphony in
general and with the first
and fourth movements in
particular. Finally, Mahler
made the following statement
whilst working on the Fourth
Symphony: "Something strange
happened to me today. The
compelling logic of a
passage I had to change
turned everything that
followed upside down, and to
my astonishment I suddenly
found myself in a completely
different realm, as when you
think you are walking
through flower-filled
Elysian fields and find
yourself transported into
the middle of the gloomy
terror of Tartarus, so that
your blood freezes in your
veins ..."
Instead of a scherzo, the
second movement is pervaded
by an "eerie" mood; Mahler
indicated that the listeners
"hair would stand on end"
here. Marked by ländler and
minuet rhythms, the piece
balances deep feeling with
grotesque elements. Death
makes an appearance in the
person of "Freund Hein" - a
name the poet Matthias
Claudius once gave to the
one who ends life and
delivers its bearer to
another world. It is no
accident that Mahler had
this movement announced as a
"Dance of Death" for a
performance in Amsterdam.
Death is personified by a
solo violin tuned a tone
higher to create a shrill,
cold and strange effect (the
painter Arnold Böcklin, who
died in 1901, created a
"Self-portrait with Death
playing the fiddle"). The
third movement, which Mahler
referred to as "...the
greatest mixture of colours
there ever was", combines
sonata and variational form,
cheerfulness and solemnity,
gracefulness and passion,
and leads into the final
movement. A remark Giuseppe
Sinopoli once made in a
discussion might apply to
Mahler and his Fourth
Symphony: "There are artists
who create a positive
yearning, illusion, utopia
and look upward in response
to a very painful
experience."
When Giuseppe
Sinopoli decided to perform
Gustav Mahler`s Fourth
Symphony at a symphony
concert with the Dresden
Staatskapelle in May 1999,
he also resolved to organize
a special programme to
introduce the work in the
Semperoper. He initially
considered a full-length
presentation, but then
decided to speak only in the
first half in which the
orchestra would present
musical examples, and to
perform the entire symphony
in the second half. Sinopoli
liked to present theoretical
explanations at some of his
concerts abroad, for
students and above all in
connection with performances
of contemporary music. In
Dresden his more than
three-year concert series
featuring works by composers
of the Second Viennese
School was linked with a
course of lectures sometimes
involving well known
speakers. With the
Staatskapelle during a
Strauss Festival in Taipei,
he presented a memorable
introduction to Elektra
before an audience of more
than 2,000. He always
tackled such tasks with
great commitment and
amusement, sharing what a
Dresden critic called his
"seemingly inexhaustible
knowledge" in a spontaneous
running commentary - even in
the German language.
"I expect a
conductor to use his
intellect to determine what
a composer's intention was.
Every artist must also be a
thinker," was Sinopoli's
maxim. That is clear in his
lecture, and it will
certainly be interesting to
learn how he approaches and
explains the work. His maxim
must however be supplemented
by his attitude as an
interpreter, as he once
expressed it in an
interview: "Music must be
realizable in perfect
accordance with the
composer's intention, both
quantitatively and
qualitatively. Qualitative
textual fidelity is
sympathy, by which I mean
being attuned to what I am
conducting, personally
experiencing conflict in the
music, working through its
problems sympathetically.
The piece must go through
me, must become a mirror of
my own psychological state.
If it does not touch
essential layers of my own
inner self I will not be
able to grasp it." And that
is apparent in listening to
this recording of Mahler's
Fourth Symphony.
The actual
concert performances of the
symphony in May 1999 were a
great success. Even the
first Dresden performance in
1908 had brought praise for
the "glorious, sublime
playing of the Royal Chapel"
despite reservations about
the work itself. Now, one
reviewer reported that
Sinopoli had led "the
orchestra to develop a
charmingly magic sound".
When the Staatskapelle
performed the Fourth
Symphony in Berlin soon
afterwards, Klaus Geitel
wrote: "An orchestra of
world class under a
conductor of world class...
At any rate, the audience at
the Philharmonie seemed to
have been struck almost dumb
with rapt amazement at the
end of the concert....
Sinopoli completely avoids
gratuitously adding interest
to the music... the
orchestra follows his
direction down to the last
detail."
Something occurred during
the introductory talk on May
28,1999 that shall not go
unmentioned here. After
about forty minutes of
talking and musical
quotations, a powerful,
impatient voice suddenly
rose above the mutterings in
the stalls: "...are we still
going to hear the symphony
straight through today?!"
After initially responding
with spontaneous laughter,
some applause and boos, the
audience fell silent,
tensely awaiting a
confrontation between
rostrum and auditorium.
Somewhat taken aback for
seconds only, Sinopoli
reacted: "To speak quite
clearly, this interruption
rather shocks me (thunderous
applause) for two reasons:
first, I planned the
commentary because I think
the audience has a right to
the experience; secondly, it
was officially advertised.
Such introductions are given
the world over, and those
who did not want to hear it
could have come in after the
interval (again strong
applause, bravos). I should
also like to say that I am
not getting a single extra
penny for doing this; I'm
doing it for the audience.
Moreover, the orchestra has
also made itself available
in order to play the
examples and then the whole
work today, which was
originally intended for this
introduction only That means
that while we work here, I
would ask you to keep such
remarks, which are so
unmindful and emotional, to
yourselves. Thank you.
(Bravos, thunderous
applause) And now, although
these people here are bored,
we will go on with the
introduction."
Eberhard
Steindorf
(Translation:
J & M
Berridge)
