101 Classical Music CDs

But I have surely written you that I am at work on a large composition. You cannot believe how this claims one's entire being, and how one is often so deep in it that for the outer world one is as if dead. Try to conceive a work so vast that in it the entire world is mirrored--one is, so to speak, only an instrument on which the whole universe plays. (I have explained this to you often, and you must accept it, if you really wish to understand me. Everyone who wishes to live with me must learn this. In such moments I no longer belong to myself.) ...These are fearful birth pains the creator of such a work suffers, and before all this organizes itself, builds itself up, and ferments in his brain, it must be preceded by much preoccupation, engrossment with self, a being dead to the outer world. My symphony will be something the world has not as yet heard! --Gustav Mahler, in a letter to his lover Anna von Mildenburg, describing the gestation of his Third Symphony--and responding to her...

Just a brief post today: Here's an awesome t-shirt design of Strauss and Mahler available for sale that I thought I'd share with my readers. Available from the blog Soho the Dog in short and long-sleeved versions from $15.40. Proceeds go to the charity organization Christopher's Haven , which provides a housing for a nominal fee for pediatric cancer patients at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children. (Also a tip of the hat to Chantal at Mahler Owes Me Ten Bucks for bringing this to my attention!)

"A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything." --Gustav Mahler We return yet again to Mahler to listen to his Fifth Symphony in an exceptional recording by Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker. ********************** Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Symphony No. 5 Deutsche Grammophon, 1993 ********************** Readers of this blog know that I'm partial to Mahler because of his--how shall I put this?--liberal use of loud brass instruments. And as a former trumpet player I can't help but really fall for the Fifth, a symphony that starts out with a big, bright trumpet solo. What can I say? He had me at "hello." Like all of Mahler's symphonies, the Fifth blows your hair back with power chords and gripping climaxes, but this symphony is also surprisingly complex and varied, and it also has a highly interesting and irregular five movement structure. We've come a long way since the unive...

If you love Mahler for his larger than life, supersized symphonic productions, this symphony is for you. ********************** Claudio Abbado and the Weiner Philharmoniker Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Symphony #2 "Resurrection" Deutsche Grammophon, 1994 ********************** The Second Symphony contains everything, and I mean everything , in Mahler's arsenal. Powerful emotion, life and death themes, lush melodies, ripping brass parts, melodrama, pianissimo to fortissimissimo dynamic ranges, choral arrangements (in German no less), even extra parts for a sizable off-stage orchestra. They're all here in this nearly 90-minute long symphony. But let me warn you, listening to this symphony can be a shocking experience. At times it leaps from repose to climax with little warning or seeming logic. Mahler takes you from emotional valleys to sudden emotional peaks, from straight instrumental music to a consonant-laden German contralto solo, from lush woodwind melodies to deafen...

It's about time we tackled a Mahler Symphony, so let's start at the start and listen to his First Symphony. Mahler was born in Bohemia in 1860, what was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and during his career he was famous much more for his conducting skills than his symphonies. He even conducted New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic during the last four or so years of his life. ********************** Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Symphony #1 Deutsche Grammophon, 1991 ********************** A few things about this symphony: 1) First of all, when you fire up a Mahler symphony, be sure to keep one finger on the volume button. I don't know any composer who goes through quite such a range of dynamics, from practically inaudible to roaringly loud. 2) This symphony was reviled at its first performance. Mahler later said, "In Budapest, where I performed it for the first time, my friends bashfully avo...