# Mahlerthon



## michaelvv (Sep 13, 2015)

Hi.

Saw this guy who have decided to listening to all the Mahler's Symphonies without any interruptions
http://www.classicfm.com/composers/mahler/guides/mahlerthon/ so I thought that I'll take the same challenge.

Right now doing it, It's a little more difficult than I thought but I think I'll manage it.

Listening to LSO valery gergiev 1-10.

mahler 1 - 52:41
mahler 2 - 21:51 + 55:50
mahler 3 - 32:24 + 59:46
mahler 4 - 54:48
mahler 5 - 1:10:43
mahler 6 - 1:17:10
mahler 7 - 1:11:54
mahler 8 - 1:17:09
mahler 9 - 1:19:09
mahler 10 - 22:12

I'm in his 4 symphony so quite a while before I'm finish.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

michaelvv said:


> Hi.
> 
> Saw this guy who have decided to listening to all the Mahler's Symphonies without any interruptions
> http://www.classicfm.com/composers/mahler/guides/mahlerthon/ so I thought that I'll take the same challenge.
> ...


Nice first post lets us know how you got one, also Welcome to Talk Classical.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

michaelvv said:


> Hi.
> 
> Saw this guy who have decided to listening to all the Mahler's Symphonies without any interruptions
> http://www.classicfm.com/composers/mahler/guides/mahlerthon/ so I thought that I'll take the same challenge.
> ...


This is cheating  If you are going to do it properly you need to play the performing completion of the 10th because Mahler had written it all out in short score. Also you left off Das Lied von der Erde which Mahler considered to be a symphony!


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

Makes a good fundraiser for charity!!


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Judith said:


> Makes a good fundraiser for charity!!


I'm shaving my head for charity. :tiphat::lol:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Becca said:


> This is cheating  If you are going to do it properly you need to play the performing completion of the 10th because Mahler had written it all out in short score. Also you left off *Das Lied von der Erde which Mahler considered to be a symphony*!


And I do believe it was written between the 8th and 9th, but not called a symphony as Mahler was afraid of dying after the Ninth (like Beethoven), so when he wrote the one called the 9th he jokingly said that it is not really the ninth. Something like that as I recall reading somewhere.


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## michaelvv (Sep 13, 2015)

Okay.

I'm on the 8th right now. Will complete my first schedule, but don't think anything more, even if it's considered as cheating 
Besides it takes a lot of time it was easier as I thought in the first place.

I really like Mahler which helps a lot.


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## Biffo (Mar 7, 2016)

I couldn't even imagine listening all of Mahler's symphonies in this fashion. I need to be in a certain mood for a particular symphony and afterwards don't want to listen to any more music, of any kind, for at least a couple of hours.


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## michaelvv (Sep 13, 2015)

Okay.

I'm finished. Did cheat a little but I managed to complete the 11 hours 15 min and 37 secs program.
Won't listening to Mahler for a couple of days. After 8-9 hours it was like being in another world. Never got bored
and I will listening to Mahler again , that's for sure.

Any who likes Mahler, who can recommend other symphonies, what I normally is listening is some of these.

Mahler
Shostakovich
Bruckner
Sibelius
Lutoslawski

and a lot more.

I'm mostly more interested in the 20century stuff, but of course there are quite some exceptions.


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

michaelvv said:


> Okay.
> 
> I'm finished. Did cheat a little but I managed to complete the 11 hours 15 min and 37 secs program.
> Won't listening to Mahler for a couple of days. After 8-9 hours it was like being in another world. Never got bored
> ...


Congrats. I've probably done that 40 or 50 times in my life. I know some people can't do it but I have no problem grabbing a cycle and spending the entire day going through it. I never find it dull either. I've done it with Wagner's Ring Cycle many times as well. Start it at like 6am when I get up and spend the whole day going through all 4 operas. Never gets dull to me.

Don't know that I can recommend you anything newer though. I spend probably 75% of my listening time with symphonies but I don't listen to a lot of newer material.

In the last two weeks I've been through:
Solti's Mahler & Bruckner cycles
Wand's Schubert cycle
Flor's Mendelssohn cycle
Kubelik's Dvorak cycle
Harnoncourt's Brahms cycle
Lloyd-Jones's Bax cycle
Bernstein's N.Y. Beethoven cycle...I've also been through Richard Goode's Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle.

I love to just let them play...


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

michaelvv said:


> Okay.
> 
> I'm finished. Did cheat a little but I managed to complete the 11 hours 15 min and 37 secs program.
> Won't listening to Mahler for a couple of days. After 8-9 hours it was like being in another world. Never got bored
> ...


Arnold Bax, Carl Nielsen


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Becca said:


> This is cheating  If you are going to do it properly you need to play the performing completion of the 10th because Mahler had written it all out in short score. Also you left off Das Lied von der Erde which Mahler considered to be a symphony!


Is he allowed to go the bathroom?
Next week listen to all the Haydn Symphonies in order


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

realdealblues said:


> Congrats. I've probably done that 40 or 50 times in my life. I know some people can't do it but I have no problem grabbing a cycle and spending the entire day going through it. I never find it dull either. I've done it with Wagner's Ring Cycle many times as well. Start it at like 6am when I get up and spend the whole day going through all 4 operas. Never gets dull to me.
> 
> Don't know that I can recommend you anything newer though. I spend probably 75% of my listening time with symphonies but I don't listen to a lot of newer material.
> 
> ...


If I listened to the Ring uninterrupted, first my wife (not a Wagnerian) would throw me out of the house, and then I would have an irresistible urge to invade Poland


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Triplets said:


> Is he allowed to go the bathroom?
> Next week listen to all the Haydn Symphonies in order


Only at the 5 minute pause that Mahler specified after the 1st movement of the 2nd symphony.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I'm gonna spend all tomorrow listening to all of Chopin's symphonies.


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## michaelvv (Sep 13, 2015)

Just for answering the question about my pauses.
According to when I was finished, I had 42 min pause, so It's also cheating.

Glad to know that someone also have tried this, but going through the *Wagner's Ring Cycle*
might at least take me a couple of days.

I might check out my fellow countryman Carl Nielsen. Had some listening to Per Norgaard also a Dane, which
I find quite interesting.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Becca said:


> Only at the 5 minute pause that Mahler specified after the 1st movement of the 2nd symphony.


Whoa, I hope he ha an iron bladder


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

michaelvv said:


> Just for answering the question about my pauses.
> According to when I was finished, I had 42 min pause, so It's also cheating.
> 
> Glad to know that someone also have tried this, but going through the *Wagner's Ring Cycle*
> ...


And lot's of strong coffee.
One a day would be better for your health also.


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## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

I did a few individual Mahler symphonythons a few years back i.e I'd listen to a group of M2 recordings, or M3, etc. I would concentrate mostly on lesser-known recordings on the basis that so few people actually review any of them.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

For whatever reason, I find that when I am in the mood for Mahler, it becomes a total immersion. I will play more than 1 version of the same work, or listen to a few of the Symphonies consecutively. Then I may go weeks or months without any GM


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I rarely have Mahlerthons as the 3rd and 8th aren't favourites of mine. I don't often have Beethoventhons either (really Merl? ) as the 1st only gets random outings every few months. The last "thon' I indulged in was a Petrenko Tchaikovskython a few weeks back. Thoroughly enjoyed that one. Before that I had a Bruggen Schubertthon.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Was there a composer called Thon? I wanna indulge in a Thonthon? Or is that just what Jamie's Oliver calls his TomTom?


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Merl said:


> I rarely have Mahlerthons as the 3rd and 8th aren't favourites of mine. I don't often have Beethoventhons either (really Merl? ) as the 1st only gets random outings every few months.


That's always funny to me because Beethoven's 1st gets more listens from me than any of his other Symphonies.


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## Judith (Nov 11, 2015)

If I had to do a "thon" of symphonies, because Brahms & Schumann composed four main ones each, I would do one with both of them.


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