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Post by Trog on Feb 25, 2015 23:49:31 GMT
The wayfarer songs: The two blue eyes of my darling.
For a bit of variation I chose a baritone, this time.
Mahler's self-referencing of "Vader Jacob" (funeral march) posted previously (about 1:40 minutes in) is unmistakable.
Personally, I find it more addictive than heroin.
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Post by cjm on Feb 26, 2015 18:34:41 GMT
By accident, I am a fan of Mahler, seen through the eyes of Ken Russell. I would not even attempt to pretend that I know the first thing about classical music. This much must be abundantly clear by now. I rely solely on the sound experience when listening to classical music, which I do enjoy but find quite demanding. Hence, brief sittings are the best I can do. The Ken Russell Mahler is an overwhelming story accompanied by Mahler's music. I had never been able to get hold of the music - especially the lieder- in the pre-internet days. It is one of the few movies I have bothered to see THREE times. I suppose it has to do with seeing it at an impressionable age for the movie does not seem popular and by 1985 it had recorded a net loss of £14,000 - so I read now. It had received an award of sorts at the Cannes Film Festival, though. Some years ago, I had sent a friend a copy of the DVD - delivered in the US but bought in Britain - much as I would have liked to keep the DVD for myself. She did not seem to share my views as the movie was never mentioned again. I must also confess that I fell in love with Alma (Mahler's movie wife). Perhaps that explains more about my infatuation than I would like to know. Anyway, great clip, Trog, and here is a link about the movie. See also Mahler's funeral from the movie - that, I had completely forgotten. |
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Post by Trog on Feb 27, 2015 18:05:00 GMT
I must also confess that I fell in love with Alma. Yes, quite the hussy.  I wonder at where he found the time to write all that music. (Compare poor Livingstone, for instance). Although maybe marital tempestuousness can lead to great creativity. |
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Post by Trog on Feb 28, 2015 7:58:42 GMT
I wonder at where he found the time to write all that music. (Compare poor Livingstone, for instance). Although maybe marital tempestuousness can lead to great creativity. Right, apparently he had either a problem with impotence later on, or he avoided intimacy because he thought he might die of his weak heart. (Maybe that is why he was so sad). So he had time to write music after all. This, apparently, put a strain on their marriage - Alma being a particularly passionate woman. ("There is not one spot on your body that I would not like to caress with my tongue." - Alma in a letter to Walter Gropius). (I had no knowledge of his personal life, really. I didn't see the film - maybe I was too young at the time. Those days they had a 2 to 21 age restriction if somebody said 'xxxx'. The impression I got was that he was portrayed as a mildly bipolar neurotic. I suspect that much of it was also based on the writings of Alma, who is today regarded as the ultimate unreliable narrator. In fact, Mahler scholars speak of 'The Alma problem', because of everything she said they have to decide if it bears any semblance to reality, or not). |
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Post by Trog on Mar 13, 2016 10:09:01 GMT
Great granddaughter of Gustav and Alma Mahler, and granddaughter of Anna Mahler. Sasha Havlicek: Attachments:
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Post by cjm on Jan 5, 2021 18:55:07 GMT
stamp
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Post by Trog on Jan 18, 2021 12:58:01 GMT
By accident, I am a fan of Mahler, seen through the eyes of Ken Russell. I would not even attempt to pretend that I know the first thing about classical music. This much must be abundantly clear by now. I rely solely on the sound experience when listening to classical music, which I do enjoy but find quite demanding. Hence, brief sittings are the best I can do. The Ken Russell Mahler is an overwhelming story accompanied by Mahler's music. I had never been able to get hold of the music - especially the lieder- in the pre-internet days. It is one of the few movies I have bothered to see THREE times. I suppose it has to do with seeing it at an impressionable age for the movie does not seem popular and by 1985 it had recorded a net loss of £14,000 - so I read now. It had received an award of sorts at the Cannes Film Festival, though. Some years ago, I had sent a friend a copy of the DVD - delivered in the US but bought in Britain - much as I would have liked to keep the DVD for myself. She did not seem to share my views as the movie was never mentioned again. I must also confess that I fell in love with Alma (Mahler's movie wife). Perhaps that explains more about my infatuation than I would like to know. Anyway, great clip, Trog, and here is a link about the movie. See also Mahler's funeral from the movie - that, I had completely forgotten. I managed to download the movie from YouTube, a few months back. In full HD. I enjoyed watching it. I don't think that Cosima Wagner (List) was anything like in the movie. Think conservative, staid, respectable - that would be Cosima Wagner. I also found the suggestion that Mahler drew inspiration from listening to the little birds and bees a bit irritating. Maybe some people get led astray by titles such as 'Das Lied von der Erde', 'Das irdische Leben', 'Was mir die Blumen auf der Wiese erzählen' and 'Was mir die Tiere im Walde erzählen', but those people totally don't get that everything Mahler ever did was drenched in utmost irony. To suggest that he was a tree-hugging naturophile is to totally miss his point. He is basically Nietzsche in music. There is one place where the director had a bit of fun with his audience: There was this famous movie, 'Death in Venice' based on a novel by Thomas Mann, which amongst others used the Adagietto from Mahler's 5 th symphony and kind of made it famous too. The story of 'Death in Venice' is loosely a homo-erotic fantasy the protagonist has for a fourteen year old boy, who was dressed in a sailor's suite when he first encounters him. So in the 'Mahler' film, at some stage the train pulls into a station, and Mahler looking lazily out of the window momentarily notices a man on the platform, looking a lot like Thomas Mann, talking to a boy dressed in a sailor's suite. Mahler - 5 th Symphony 4 th Movement "Adagietto" One only has to look at Valery Gergiev to realize that there must, indeed, be a substantial amount of Neanderthal genes present in modern H. Sapiens. |
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Post by cjm on Jan 24, 2021 6:47:22 GMT
By accident, I am a fan of Mahler, seen through the eyes of Ken Russell. I would not even attempt to pretend that I know the first thing about classical music. This much must be abundantly clear by now. I rely solely on the sound experience when listening to classical music, which I do enjoy but find quite demanding. Hence, brief sittings are the best I can do. The Ken Russell Mahler is an overwhelming story accompanied by Mahler's music. I had never been able to get hold of the music - especially the lieder- in the pre-internet days. It is one of the few movies I have bothered to see THREE times. I suppose it has to do with seeing it at an impressionable age for the movie does not seem popular and by 1985 it had recorded a net loss of £14,000 - so I read now. It had received an award of sorts at the Cannes Film Festival, though. Some years ago, I had sent a friend a copy of the DVD - delivered in the US but bought in Britain - much as I would have liked to keep the DVD for myself. She did not seem to share my views as the movie was never mentioned again. I must also confess that I fell in love with Alma (Mahler's movie wife). Perhaps that explains more about my infatuation than I would like to know. Anyway, great clip, Trog, and here is a link about the movie. See also Mahler's funeral from the movie - that, I had completely forgotten. I managed to download the movie from YouTube, a few months back. In full HD. I enjoyed watching it. I don't think that Cosima Wagner (List) was anything like in the movie. Think conservative, staid, respectable - that would be Cosima Wagner. I also found the suggestion that Mahler drew inspiration from listening to the little birds and bees a bit irritating. Maybe some people get led astray by titles such as 'Das Lied von der Erde', 'Das irdische Leben', 'Was mir die Blumen auf der Wiese erzählen' and 'Was mir die Tiere im Walde erzählen', but those people totally don't get that everything Mahler ever did was drenched in utmost irony. To suggest that he was a tree-hugging naturophile is to totally miss his point. He is basically Nietzsche in music. There is one place where the director had a bit of fun with his audience: There was this famous movie, 'Death in Venice' based on a novel by Thomas Mann, which amongst others used the Adagietto from Mahler's 5 th symphony and kind of made it famous too. The story of 'Death in Venice' is loosely a homo-erotic fantasy the protagonist has for a fourteen year old boy, who was dressed in a sailor's suite when he first encounters him. So in the 'Mahler' film, at some stage the train pulls into a station, and Mahler looking lazily out of the window momentarily notices a man on the platform, looking a lot like Thomas Mann, talking to a boy dressed in a sailor's suite. Mahler - 5 th Symphony 4 th Movement "Adagietto" One only has to look at Valery Gergiev to realize that there must, indeed, be a substantial amount of Neanderthal genes present in modern H. Sapiens. I found the link to the movie. Thank you! I am 18 again! There are very diverse views about the movie in the comments. I quote a few below. A number of people remember it from their youth. I was a sucker for surrealism and weird movies and adored Ken Russell, having seen his Tommy before Mahler. Here is a list of his movies. I went for the movie and was capitivated by the music (I had never heard of Mahler before then). It was as if the music was written for the movie!  BTW, should you wish to download it, it is possible with Firefox and the Add-on Easy Youtube Video Downloader Express. A Chrome derived browser did not want to do it. |
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Post by Trog on Jan 25, 2021 7:25:11 GMT
It was as if the music was written for the movie! Well, the movie was written for the music. So it works out the same, in the end. |
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BTW, should you wish to download it, it is possible with Firefox and the Add-on Easy Youtube Video Downloader Express. A Chrome derived browser did not want to do it.