Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius

By Judith Eckelmeyer

(GRACE WOODS MUSIC SESSION SEPTEMBER 16, 2024)

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Gustav Mahler, photographed in 1907 by Moritz Nähr at the end of his period as director of the Vienna Hofoper

​Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) worked in a distinctly personal manner, especially when composing symphonies. So many of them included either texted songs lifted wholesale from his early works, or referred by the use of recognizable melodies from early songs, or borrowed existing melodies known to the general population at the time (for example, “Frère Jacques” in his first symphony). And he wasn’t shy about creating his own texts to set to music (for example, extending with his own continuation of Klopstock’s “Resurrection” poem in his second symphony). However, one of his favorite text sources was a collection of “folk” poetry in three volumes by Achim von Arnim (1781-1831) and Clemens Brentano (1778-1842). The two German poets, emersed in the young German Romantic movement, culled material from the Rhineland and even added their own poetry to the folk texts, and established a strong national resource called Des Knaben Wunderhorn—The Boy’s Magic Horn. From this collection Mahler drew on a number of poems which he set as solo songs early in his career, then later used them in symphonic works, notably in his fourth symphony’s last movement.

Title-page of Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder, Volume 1, published in 1806

Mahler himself commented that his fourth symphony in G major (1902) needs to be understood “backwards”, in other words, understanding the contents of the last movement to recognize them as the source of music in the three previous movements. The whole symphony, then, is a kind of progression of clues about the work that is finally manifest in the last movement. A case in point: the opening measures of the 4th movement is the music that begins the entire symphony.

The poem Mahler used in the final movement of Symphony 4 is titled “Das himmlische Leben”—“The heavenly life”. It presents a child’s idea of heaven in which the longings of the impoverished population of the Rhineland in the early years of 19th century Germany find their desires richly satisfied. Note the variety of foods they have been missing:

We enjoy the heavenly pleasures, so we avoid all earthly things.
No worldly clamor is heard in heaven! All live in gentle peace!
We lead an angelic life, yet we are quite merry nevertheless.
We lead an angelic life, we dance and leap, we skip and sing!
St. Peter in Heaven looks on!
            
(St.) John lets the little lamb loose. Herod the butcher waits for it.
We lead a patient, innocent, meek, sweet little lamb to its death.
St. Luke slaughters the ox without a thought or concern,
The wine costs not a penny in the heavenly cellar,
The angels bake the bread.
            
All kinds of fine herbs grow in the heavenly garden!
Fine asparagus, beans, and whatever we want! 
Whole platters are prepared for us.
 Fine apples, fine pears and fine grapes! The gardener allows us everything.
            
If you want venison or hare, they run up in the open streets!
If there is a fast day (implying no meat) all the fish joyfully swim up.
There comes St. Peter running with his net and bait into the heavenly pond.
St. Martha must be the cook!
            
​There is no music on earth that can compare with ours!
Eleven thousand maidens boldly dance!
St. Ursula herself laughs at the sight!
There is no music on earth that can compare with ours.
Cecelia and her kin are splendid musicians. 
The angels’ voices lift our spirits so that everything awakens to joy!

This is the last four minutes of Gustav Mahler's fourth symphony from a Dec 4, 2021 performance by the Berlin Philharmonic with Conductor Semyon Bychkov and featuring soprano Chen Reiss, with English subtitles

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Jean Sibelius

Curiously, Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), having studied the violin at least by the age of 10 and in earnest from the age of 14, wrote only one concerto for the instrument, and that not until he was over the age of 40. Two symphonies for full orchestra, several tone poems for orchestra, and several chamber works that included the violin preceded the concerto, which premiered in 1903. These works exhibited his mastery of orchestral technique, uniquely featuring woodwind and brass sonorities. However, Sibelius’s experience with the violin, his understanding of the capabilities of the instrument and his widely recognized performing brilliance imbued the concerto with great energy, virtuosic elements,  and “the most hair-raising and acrobatic expressive  devices”, per Stewart Spencer’s translation of Peter Fuhrmann’s notes for the recording by Anne-Sophie Mutter. ​

The first performance, in Helsinki, was too soon after the score was completed; Sibelius conducted, but neither the orchestra nor the soloist was prepared for the difficulty of the work and the work was panned by critics. Sibelius immediately began a major revision of the concerto, making it somewhat shorter and somewhat less technically extreme in places. The revised version was performed in Berlin, with three full rehearsals and Richard Strauss conducting. Yet even with the success of this performance, it took some years and the development of the recording industry before the public became aware of the work. This is the version one can hear in performances and on recordings today. 

Sibelius followed the classical concerto three-movement plan, a moderately fast tempo, then an adagio di molto—really slow—and a concluding fast movement. From the very beginning there is a palpable energy and power in the music. But after the slow second movement, the third returns with redoubled drive for the soloist, ending in an unforgettable insistence that takes the concerto to a breathless end.

Conducted by Mikko Franck, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France performs the "Violin Concerto in d minor" op.47 by Jean Sibelius with Hilary Hahn. Concert recorded live on 2 May at the Radio France Auditorium in Paris.

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Judith Eckelmeyer ©2024