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Gustav Mahler: Alienation and Spirituality
Mahler’s spirituality was defined by his personal inner demons and psychological struggles. He was a typical late Romantic in this respect. With Mahler’s music there is none of the objective contemplation of God that we see in the music of J.S. Bach, for example; everything Mahler wrote was highly subjective. His contemporary, one-time friend and…
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Mahler and Hesse: What the Water Tells Me
Mahler’s composing hut in Steinbach. (Photograph courtesy of Alex Ross) Gustav Mahler was working on his Symphony No. 2 in 1894 when he decided to build a composing hut in a lakeside meadow in Steinbach. The builder who constructed the hut was a man named Franz Lösch, and in an interview with a Viennese journal…
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Thomas Mann on Spirituality in Art
Terry Teachout’s quote of the day at About Last Night is relevant for our discussion on sprituality in art. It’s from Thomas Mann’s Reflections of an Unpolitical Man. Art is a conservative power, the strongest of all; it preserves spiritual possibilities that without it–perhaps–would die out.
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Terry Eagleton on William Blake: Sex, Art and Transformation
Whatever you think of Terry Eagleton, he always makes for a provocative read. His piece on Blake at the Guardian Unlimited provides fascinating perspective on one of history’s greatest poets: Terry Eagleton: The original political vision: sex, art and transformation. See sample quote below: Blake, however, was not enamoured of the third way. The New…
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J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Albert Einstein and Universal Spirituality
Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass in B Minor is not only a religious work, but a spiritual one. In other words, it transcends the theology of Christianity on which it is based and applies itself to a broader category of feeling that we call ‘spirituality’. This is what the eminent music scholar Yoshitake Kobayashi meant when…
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Jessica Duchen on Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
Jessica Duchen writes an interesting review of Simone Young conducting the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’: Jessica Duchen’s classical music blog: Maaaghler “What is life and what is death?” wrote Mahler, explaining the first movement. “Have we any continuing existence? Is it all an empty…
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Simon Rattle Conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 9
Charles Noble is one of my favourite classical music bloggers, and his review of the new recording of Mahler’s 9th Symphony performed by Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic is, to put it mildly, glowing: I have to say that it just might be the best modern recording of any work by any orchestra. You…
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Free Download: The Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke
Click on this link for a downloadable PDF of a complete translation of Rilke’s Duino Elegies by Tony Kline: rilke-duinoelegies.pdf. This is provided by A.S. Kline’s Poetry in Translation archive, and is free for non-commercial use. You can also go to this site to read Robert Hunter’s translation of the Duino Elegies.
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The Top Ten Violin Concertos of All Time
My list of the ten greatest violin concertos is a highly personal choice, and subject to amendment depending on: my mood, glorious new recordings, or a particularly brilliant live performance. However, I think I’ve listed the very best examples of the form here (although leaving out Bruch, Szymanowski and Bartok wasn’t easy). 1. Ludwig van…