Join us on Sunday, Sept. 1 at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1 and Monday, Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2 as The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert brings you works by Gustav Mahler and his wife, Alma Schindler-Mahler. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Mahler’s massive Symphony No. 7 in E Minor, and to open the program, four songs by Schindler-Mahler, sung by Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill.
The young Alma Schindler belonged to a kind of artistic nobility in Vienna at the end of the 19th century. Her father was a distinguished painter; her mother, a singer. She began composing as a child, and by her teens she was studying with an eminent teacher, Alexander von Zemlinsky, who thought highly of her talent. At age 21 she met Gustav Mahler, then a towering figure in Vienna. He was nearly twice her age. Within months they were married, and Alma Schindler-Mahler gave up composing entirely – at her new husband’s request. Very few of Alma’s works survive, but the songs on this program, among the last she produced, display her remarkable gifts. They were written originally for voice and piano in 1901 and 1902, and about 90 years later were orchestrated by Colin and David Matthews.
The Seventh Symphony of Gustav Mahler is the least-often performed of his symphonies, but exactly why is a bit of a mystery. Perhaps it’s the lack of an overall theme or narrative; or the absence of folk melodies or voices, so prevalent in Mahler’s first few symphonies. This is pure abstract music, and the composer considered it among his best works. It was the product of a happy time, a few years after his marriage to Alma Schindler. Mahler was at the height of his conducting career, heading both the Vienna Court Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic. These posts consumed all his energy during the performance season, but summers were free for composition… and Mahler was finally starting to get the acclaim he deserved as a composer.
Over the summer of 1904, he crafted two pieces that he called Night Music, which would ultimately be the second and fourth movements of the Seventh Symphony. He planned to finish the symphony the following summer. But when that summer came, a persistent case of writer’s block came with it. In despair, the composer headed off to hike in the mountains. As he returned home, the dam broke. The last stage of the journey required a boat trip, and as the craft departed, as Mahler later wrote to Alma, “at the first stroke of the oars the theme… of the introduction to the first movement came into my head.” Within a month he had finished the first, third, and fifth movements of the symphony.
The work’s form is symmetrical: Two large outer movements frame the two pieces of Night Music and a central Scherzo. At the opening of the first movement it’s easy to imagine the sound of oars in the water that broke Mahler’s writer’s block. The second movement paints an image of nature at night, with bird calls and cowbells. The Scherzo has sinister and grotesque leanings that are dispelled by the fourth movement. This Night Music evokes the serenade tradition, with reduced scoring and the addition of mandolin and guitar. An expansive finale with triumphant flourishes concludes the work.
PROGRAM:
Schindler-Mahler, orch. Matthews: Four Songs
Mahler: Symphony No. 7 in E Minor, Op. 45
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor
Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
WRTI PRODUCTION TEAM:
Melinda Whiting: Host
Alex Ariff: Senior Producer
Joseph Patti: Broadcast Engineer
Listen to The Philadelphia Orchestra in Concert broadcasts every Sunday at 1 p.m. on WRTI 90.1, streaming at WRTI.org, on the WRTI mobile app, and on your smart speaker. Listen again on Mondays at 7 p.m. on WRTI HD-2. Listen for up to two weeks after broadcast on WRTI Replay.
