Mahler is a rather controversial composer -
no-one stays indifferent to him. Either one loves him or hates him. Even
in our days, love for Mahler's music is considered ‘an acquired
taste’, due to the sombre atmosphere , soaring melodies, distortion and
eventual grotesquerie of his music.
Gustav Mahler
( 1860 – 1911) was a composer and
expressive conductor born in Bohemia, - then within the borders of the old
Austrian Empire, and currently located in the Czeck Republic. A Jewish, his works were banned during the
years under the Nazi rule. After 1945, he became one of the most performed and
recorded composers, conquering the admiration and being interpreted by great conductors all over the
world, such as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Claudio Abbado.
Mahler is deemed a composer of the late-Romantic Era or a ‘transition composer’, as much as Richard Strauss and Anton
Bruckner.
He drew much on the elements
of the tradition of Beethoven and Schubert, as well as on composers such as Liszt, Berlioz and
Wagner. At the same time, being one of the pioneers in the use of ‘progressive
tonality’, his work defined a period of
discontinuity and transition from the Romantic tradition to the era of ‘New Music’ or Atonality - represented mainly by composers of the Second
Viennese School (Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern) and others such
as Stravinsky and Richard Strauss.
The hallmark of Mahler’s style – apart from his use of the
device of ‘progressive tonality’[1],his
idea of symphony as an ‘entire world’, the sombre nature of the symphonies (inspired by the author's own life's experience of death in the family and tragedy) and the commitment to new sounds (his
very particular fashion of using the sounds of instruments) – was the constant
intrusion of banality and absurd in moments of deep seriousness.
The bulk of his music comprise symphonies, symphonic poems
and lieder. However, his early works include pieces of other
genres, such as the Piano Quartet in A minor – which we shall contemplate today.
The Piano Quartet in A minor is a piece surrounded by much
mystery. It is an unfinished work composed by Mahler in his early years (it is
believed to have been written around 1876). Due to the fact that only its first
movement survived; it is also known as The Piano Quartet Movement in A minor. It is improbable that
Mahler completed any other movements. However, there is a 24-bar sketch of a scherzo in G minor, which is paired by some with the quartet.
Observe the dramatic tone of the piece, noticeable in its
melodies. Also notice the contrast between sombre, serious passages and very trivial
ones.
A passionate performance by the Quarto Quartet. Enjoy!
[1] A
practice emerging in the late XIX century, ‘progressive tonality’ was a device
used as a means of resolving the so-called ‘symphonic conflict’. This was done
through the use of a progression of keys within a piece, causing the piece to
end in a different key from that in which it began. Mahler’s Second Symphony is a famous example of the use of this
technique.
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