Mahler

So Bobby C was nice enough to offer me a ticket to see Mahler's fourth and first symphonies at Carnegie Hall yesterday. Now I am an experienced performer myself. I have played Carnegie Hall (all they gave me was a lousy tee shirt), and Broadway (as an extra picked from the audience for Fool Moon). Most recently I have been touring various Manhattan karaoke bars in an effort to build up my street cred. So I know a quality production when I see one. And yesterday's fit the bill.

Mahler was a man known more as a conductor than a composer. He didn't compile a particularly large catalogue, and what music he did write was generally criticized for its extravagance and jarring complexity by his contemporaries. But 100 + years later, these very "flaws" have led to a newfound popularity for this Austrian. Including your humble narrator Smuckers. I find his symphonies to be cauldrons of controlled chaos within which melodies simmer and stew before being broken down in inevitable torrents of bow strokes.

In addition, Mahler makes for compelling staging. In this case, while his Fourth Symphony has a conventional arrangement, his First Symphony includes 7 horns, 4 trumpets, 2 harps, 4 clarinets, 4 oboes, 2 sets of timpani, and my personal favorite: 1 triangle.

(Quick aside: I've always been curious what role the triangle player has within the social hierarchy of an orchestra. Do the other members of the orchestra laugh at him? Does he have to carry luggage/ get the concert master his coffee like an intern? When they go out to the wine bars to hit on classical music groupies (if that's not an oxymoron) does he admit he plays the triangle or does he just say "I play percussion"? What does he get paid? I'm trying to find a comparison in the sport world and I just can't seem to do it. All he does is bang his triangle as loudly as he can for anywhere between 15 to 20 seconds. That's it. It's not an exacting task like the timp or even the symbol, where if he's off a fraction of a second it can ruin the performance. I'd compare the symbol player to a long snapper or a holder. But the triangle player?

And how does one become a triangle player in the first place? In grade school they'd always stick the least musical kid with no rhythm at triangle. But this is a professional orchestra. Was this man's dream growing up to be the finest triangle player in the world? I hope so.)

But I digress. The point is that it is visually stunning to see all those instruments on one stage at one time, and of course to hear them, especially in a venue like Carnegie Hall. And despite the fact that my seat was practically in the rafters, I felt I got a good sense for the timing and feel of the musicians.

All in all, it was a great way to spend Sunday afternoon and a pleasant distraction from the epic fail that was the Phillies 2010 postseason.