{"id":2616,"date":"2023-05-23T17:13:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T21:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2023-05-23T18:36:10","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T22:36:10","slug":"boulders-36th-mahlerfest-a-communal-labor-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2023\/05\/boulders-36th-mahlerfest-a-communal-labor-of-love.html","title":{"rendered":"Boulder’s 36th (!) Mahlerfest — A Communal Labor of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The author riding the carousel at Nederland (alt. 8,000 feet), 30 minutes from Boulder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Thirty-six years ago, the conductor Robert Olson, a faculty member at Boulder\u2019s University of Colorado, created Colorado Mahlerfest for hungry Mahlerites. In 1987, performances of Mahler symphonies were far less common, far less pervasive than today. The first Mahlerfest comprised the First Symphony, an early movement for piano quartet, and a set of songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahlerfest XXXVI, which concluded last Sunday afternoon, included three orchestral concerts, two chamber music concerts, and a film. As the author The <\/strong>Marriage<\/strong>: <\/a><\/em>The Mahlers in New York<\/em><\/a>,<\/strong> I took part in an all-day symposium. The entire festival experience was impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mahler\u2019s is not living-room music. He composed big pieces for a community of listeners. It was the communal aspect of Boulder\u2019s Mahlerfest that surprised me most.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centerpiece of the festival was a performance of the Resurrection<\/em> Symphony, which lasts ninety minutes and requires a large orchestra, offstage brass and percussion, two vocal soloists, and a big chorus. The audience at Macky Hall, on the University of Colorado campus, numbered about a thousand. Completed in 1922, the hall is picturesque, with tall cathedral windows. The rapt audience was remarkably inter-generational \u2013 something not to be found in New York City concert halls these days, and crucial to the ambience of shared experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As unusual is that the orchestra of 100-plus players felt part of it all. They arrived to play Mahler from all over the United States. Only the principal players were paid. The others came as a labor of love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conductor was Kenneth Woods, in charge since Olson\u2019s departure in 2015. A gifted speaker and thinker, he is a pervasive presence. He is not addressed as \u201cmaestro\u201d \u2013 the presiding maestro being Gustav Mahler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woods\u2019 performance of Mahler 2 left no doubt that he is a major Mahler interpreter. I have heard cleaner performance of this work, but never one more convincing. The symphony suffered a long and tortuous gestation lasting some six years. The first movement is a funeral march, the second a Landler of sorts, the third a kaleidoscopic scherzo. After that, the piece goes its own way, with agonized words by Klopstock and Mahler, an opening of graves, a march of the dead, and a final paean of transcendence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This blazing sequence risks shattering under pressure into disconnected shards of brilliance. The opening march movement alone, some twenty minutes long, combines grief and fury with soaring intimations of serenity. Mahler asks that the fundamental speed change more than two dozen times. Woods\u2019 reading here embraced an exceptional range of mood and tempo. But a mighty Ur-pulse was sustained. The movement ends with a wasted tread, then a torrential scalar descent, then two pizzicato chords. Reading a sharply accented staccato triplet, Woods\u2019 violas (an exceptional group) more than honored the score; they enacted the dirge\u2019s culminating fatigue. The play of tempo in these closing measures was so keenly gauged that the silences told loudly and precisely. And so it was in the subsequent movements, with their many critical pauses; the trajectory remained organic. Midway through the pivotal mezzo-soprano solo \u2013 right at \u201cthe loving God will grant me light\u201d — the Boulder sun emerged, streaming through the high cathedral windows. An uncanny moment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woods was also responsible for the artistic heft of the festival\u2019s five packed days. The Resurrection<\/em> Symphony was preceded by an ambitious symphonic work by Thea Musgrave: Phoenix Rising<\/em> (1997). A Mahler \u201cLiederaband,\u201d recreating Mahler\u2019s Vienna concert of January 29, 1905, comprised sixteen songs with orchestra: Kindertotenlieder<\/em>, Ruckert-Lieder<\/em>, and selections from Des Knaben Wunderhorn<\/em>. A chamber orchestra program comprised the American premiere of Hans Gal\u2019s Fourth Symphony (1974) and act one of Wagner\u2019s Die Walkure<\/em> (with reduced forces). Two chamber music concerts included a terrific rendition of Korngold\u2019s String Sextet (Op. 10), Ernest Bloch\u2019s Suite for Cello and Piano (a transcription of his viola suite), and shorter works by Max Reger, Erwin Schulhoff, Egon Wellesz, Olivier Messiaen, and Luciano Berio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next May, Mahlerfest XXXVII will explore the relationship between Mahler and Richard Strauss. The orchestral fare will include Mahler\u2019s Fourth and Strauss\u2019s Alpine<\/em> Symphony. I\u2019ll be there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2023 Mahlerfest Symposium may be accessed here.<\/a><\/strong> My presentation begins one hour and 48 minutes into the link and includes commentary by Thomas Hampson. I deal with (1) Mahler\u2019s New York performances and what they sounded like, and (2) why Henry Krehbiel regarded Mahler\u2019s New York Philharmonic tenure a \u201cfailure\u201d (and how I turn their relationship into historical fiction).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty-six years ago, the conductor Robert Olson, a faculty member at Boulder\u2019s University of Colorado, created Colorado Mahlerfest for hungry Mahlerites. In 1987, performances of Mahler symphonies were far less common, far less pervasive than today. The first Mahlerfest comprised the First Symphony, an early movement for piano quartet, and a set of songs. Mahlerfest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Gc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2616"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2627,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions\/2627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}