Friday 16 July 2010

The opening of the last movement of Mahler's 7th Symphony. Bernard Haitink & the Berlin Philharmonic.
Just because!



This last movement of Mahler's Seventh  has often been interpreted as a superficially optimistic ending to a symphony full of brooding mystery and nightmarish visions. This is to ignore the deliberate sarcasm and parody of much of the score which underlies the clearly overstated triumphalism; perhaps it's more a  defiant  gesture of ultimate hope in the future in the face of overwhelming odds. After the macabre visions of the night comes, in Mahler's own words, "the broad daylight" of the new morning.

1 comment:

  1. Mahler's 8th this evening at 8pm to start The Proms. Wonderful. Hope you can enjoy it too Father.

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