# When / how / why did you get into Mahler?



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I used to listen to classical back about 30+ years ago, then was pretty much away from it until about 2011 when I got heavily into it. Yet I was fairly cautious about new works. 

I didn't think much of Mahler and then last fall went to a concert to hear Beethoven's 5th and the concert also included Mahler's 1st. I remember hearing Mahler's 1st and thinking that it is quite a bit different, but not bad. 

Well then nothing happened after that but that I was more aware of Mahler. I think that experience of the concert made me realize, perhaps on a subconscious level, that there was something worthwhle with Mahler. 

I had largely limited myself to Beethoven for symphonic works, but then started expanding to include Mendelssohn, then Brahms, Saint-Saens, and even Berwald. I considered Russian composers and Bruckner, but did not find enough to move me to get a cycle. 

Then I though, hey, Mahler 1 was pretty good, I'll get a good Mahler 1 disk. While searching for it, a very nicely priced Mahler symphony cycle popped up on Ebay. I bid on it and got it for a pretty good deal. (In fact, because of a misrepresentation in the sellers ad, they gave me a refund. I did not specify how much but they gave me more than I paid shipped! And I got to keep the set!)

Now I have experienced Mahler 1, 5, and 7 and like all three very much. There are six more for me to explore yet and I have a good feeling that they all are going to be as wonderful as these first three I have heard. 

I have a very strong feeling that Mahler's symphonies are going right to the top alongside Beethoven's for me. One of the big positives for me is that Mahler's music is quite different from Beethoven, Mendelssohn, etc. It stands outside that grouping. It has enough modern thrust, yet maintains a connection to the classical that I so much love. 

And of course, Mahler's music is wonderful and well developed. Just being different would not last, but I can see that this will be a lifelong relationship with Mahler's music.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

I don't remember how I discovered Mahler but a few years ago when I listened to his Symphony no 9 I was so taken back by it, I didn't listen to any music for a few days, it really pulled on my mind a lot. 
I still admit to not hearing ALL 9 symphonies, but the 2nd, 5th, 7th and 8th are also amazing symphonies. For me he's one of the greatest symphonists of all time and far superior in that category to anything before him. 

Stop reminding me of other things to put on, I want to be Baroque this week!!! :lol:


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I was first introduced to the last movement of the fourth symphony in a music history class, but it wasn't until about eight years ago that I dove in. I was a Mahler freak for that year. I think recalling the intensity of that year keeps me as more of a toe-dipper now.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

It was brought up wit it, so lets say ; from the very beginning.


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Pugg said:


> It was brought up wit it, so lets say ; from the very beginning.


I expected a biography but at least we share a love of Mahler


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## bz3 (Oct 15, 2015)

I was exposed early, as my father liked him to a degree and I heard his works as a boy (particularly the 5th). However, he was far from a favorite of my father's, who was a stoic man that regarded Mahler as too moody and depressing for frequent listening (plus the small oeuvre).

I came to really know him in grad school as I listened to the Wunderhorn symphonies frequently as I studied - more because their length ate up time than anything. Well I became hooked and that was that. I like all he's done, particularly 2, 5, and 6. But his 9th is where I think Mahler convincingly made his bid for immortality. I only wish he gave us some more chamber works, as the song cycle form is not among my favorite genres.


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

After 20 years or so listening to classical music, mostly solo, chamber works, concertos, and later orchestral pieces I began to get some symphonies. It was Beethoven first, then Bruckner, and Mahler came later via his 9th. One of the greatest musical revelations in my listener' s life with no doubt.


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## OldFashionedGirl (Jul 21, 2013)

I was scared to get into Mahler's music, because a person said that his music was difficult to listen. I only listened to the adagietto from his 5th symphony. One day a person shared Mahler's 3rd symphony on Twitter. I listened out of curiosity, but I liked it very much that I ended up listening the whole thing. I didn't find his music that difficult to listen of that guy said, and now Mahler is one of my favorite composers.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

I discovered Mahler when I was in the Army back in 1970.

I purchased an LP that was on sale in the PX. It was the Bruno Walter recording with the Columbia Symphony.


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

My journey with Mahler has been slow, and I think still continuing
I listened to the 1st symphony back in the eighties and enjoyed this and then bought the Rattle/CBSO recording of the 2nd when it was Gramophone Record of the Year and found this so completely different and if I am honest hard work.
Then after many years I returned back to classical music and determind to give Mahler another go
The ease and low cost now of box sets helped and I have worked my way through with much more pleasure. I will confess to a preference for the non vocal symphonies with the 5th as my current favourite. 
The good advice on this forum (particularly from a certain moderator) has been invaluable and my exploration continues. If only there was more time!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

When I was starting to feel my way into classical (in the mid 80s), a friend of mine gave me a LP record of Mahler's 4th (CGO, Haitink, Alexander). I was blown away. One of my first priorities when starting a CD collection shortly afterwards was to get everything by Mahler. Never regretted it.


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## Andolink (Oct 29, 2012)

When I was 14 in 1972 I was poking through some reel-to-reel tapes of my dad's that included Mahler's 6th and 7th symphonies. At that point I was already passionately involved with Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms so exploring this new composer I'd never heard of was intriguing. I remember playing those tapes and recognizing that this was a radically different musical vocabulary than anything I had heard to that point and being both mystified and sure I had to hear these again and again to see if I could figure out what was going on. I think that even before I was able to make sense of what Mahler was doing, I could sense that this music was something momentous and deep. Very soon I was completely in thrall to these recordings of the 6th and 7th symphonies and in short order was swooning over Nos. 1, 5, 4, 8 and finally 9. 

Needless to say, discovering Mahler's genius at a young age profoundly influenced my musical interests from that time to the present. I owe my dad a lot for having been musically curious enough to provide a very rich foundation to get me started on a musical journey that's lasted a lifetime.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

My introduction to Mahler is quite a bizarre one.

About 30 years ago, I had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum and was learning to program it. The manual's chapter on sound (the BEEP command!) included an example using the funeral march theme from Mahler's 1st symphony. A few years later, when browsing in my college AV library, I came across a Solti recording of the work and thought _hey, I can finally get to hear the actual music_. I was transfixed by the opening, and hearing the third movement in full was a revelation.
I was already into some classical music at that stage, so I no doubt would have come to Mahler at some point, but that initial spark of curiosity was crucial. (And the writer of the manual could just as easily have chosen _Frere Jacques_ as his example...)


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I first became aware of Mahler when I was about eighteen and there was a tv programme with Bernstein playing Mahler's Second. Instantly hooked and I have never looked back. One of my favourite composers.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I was aware of Mahler being one of the great symphonists with most of them being constructed on an epic scale so I wanted to wade in immediately even though I was very much the archetypical classical greenhorn back then. I bought Solti's Decca recording of the 8th first, possibly because I was seduced by the _Symphony of a Thousand_ tag. Monumental it certainly was, but it was a wrong choice - a choral symphony was not what I was really looking for and I realised after reading more about Mahler's output that I really should have begun elsewhere. However, impatience took over again so I took the plunge and bought Kubelik's cycle on DG. Then, listening to them over time (and in chronological order), things started to make far more sense. Eventually I started to buy other recordings of the symphonies as I felt that the scope of Mahler's music lent itself well to a myriad of interpretations (Bernstein and Tennstedt being probably my favourite Mahler conductors these days).

Even after all these years I'm still a little reticent about the 8th when comparing it to the others, but when taken as a whole Mahler's symphonic cycle is one which I've returned to with far more frequency than any others with the exception of those by Bruckner, Beethoven and Shostakovich - Mahler was a crucial factor in ensuring that my liking for classical was to become permanent and not just a passing phase at a time when my non-classical listening was going through a state of flux and thus searching for a new mast on which to nail my colours. I owe him!


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I asked my father, he told me that I was 5 years old when they took me to the concert hall to see this live.
Little did I know this was almost immortal performance .


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

My girlfriend in college was exposed to Mahler through one of her classes, to the Second specifically, and she passed along her enthusiasm to me. It took some time to take root, though. I didn't immediately take to either the Second or the Eighth (which was the next one I heard), but something about the music fascinated me and I kept coming back. The next summer I listened to the Sixth for the first time. I enjoyed a lot of it, but parts of the finale sounded like pure cacophony and I couldn't understand how anyone could enjoy those parts. Still, I kept listening to it and became hooked. It was the Sixth that really made me a Mahlerian, followed by the Kindertotenlieder and the Fifth, so I was really drawn in by the middle period Mahler, which I've heard is rather unusual.

For the next few years after that, I was voraciously devouring Mahler scores, which my college library had a complete set of, as well as Mahler recordings. I heard the Ninth and found it again too dissonant, too difficult, then the same with Das Lied von der Erde and the Tenth. Eventually I found I loved all of them as well, but it took time. None of Mahler's works opened up to me on first hearing, and although all of them are rewarding, many miss out on the rewards from one or another of them (particularly the Eighth, still unfairly considered the black sheep after all this time).

Mahler's musical language still seems to me to be absolutely unique. There were no composers preceding him and no composers following him that had the exact same qualities, although I do see his successor in Alban Berg, who retains his constant development, his pervasive lyricism, and his blending of "high" and "low" styles into a cohesive whole. Wozzeck would have been Mahler's favorite work from the Second Viennese School, I am sure.


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## Fat Bob (Sep 25, 2015)

BBC radio 3 runs a regular series called "Building a library" in which available recordings are reviewed and a final recommendation is made. The episode in question was over 35 years ago when I was in the early stages of exploring classical music and hadn't progressed beyond the obvious warhorses, Mahler 1 was reviewed and the Kubelik version was the final recommendation. This sounded different to anything else I'd heard but was still accessible to an inexperienced listener. A colleague at work at that time had a box set of the first Haitink set which I was allowed to borrow for a weekend and so, doing something I would never recommend to anyone now, I listened to symphonies 2 through to 6 inclusive over two days. Rather exhausting but I was hooked from then on. 

And Kubelik's version is probably still my favourite version of the first (though Bernstein gives him a good run for his money).


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

1950 or 51. WQXR AM broadcast, sometime around midnight. Awake because of a toothache. Small table radio, volume on low, to avoid disturbing my brother in the next room. Symphony #1. I could barely hear the quiet parts - which made the loud parts all the more dramatic. Hooked for life.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Mahlerian said:


> *Mahler's musical language still seems to me to be absolutely unique. There were no composers preceding him and no composers following him that had the exact same qualities*, although I do see his successor in Alban Berg, who retains his constant development, his pervasive lyricism, and his blending of "high" and "low" styles into a cohesive whole. Wozzeck would have been Mahler's favorite work from the Second Viennese School, I am sure.


Fascinating statement. And you provided me with a couple of things to check out after I have fully digested all of Mahler's symphonies.

I may be presuming too much, but am expecting all Mahler's symphonies to fall into place for me. The first three that I listened to (1, 5, 7) did. Something in my musical journey and life path seems to have prepared me for this moment to receive Mahler with open arms at this time. It is a beautiful thing and I am savoring it to the maximum extent, not to go overboard, but sprinkle those Mahler symphonies among many other works so as not to over do it. Now I have to figure out which Mahler symphony should I check out next.


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## Rhombic (Oct 28, 2013)

:trp: During my first year of French horn lessons, when I could barely play a note or, in fact, properly lift the instrument, my teacher used to give me some "listening homework" for when I went back home. He wanted to introduce me to more orchestral music, and thanks to him I ended up listening to Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius and many others, not only symphonies, but also some other orchestral pieces that I have since loved. :cheers: And on that note, it's been ages since I last saw him


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I was exposed to a lot of the basic repertoire listening to classical radio starting around 1980 or so. But I don't think I ever heard a Mahler symphony. Fast forward to 2009-10 when Mahler fanatic and member Chalkpie encouraged me to get into the symphonies. The bug didn't bite right away, and it would be another couple years before the Adagio from no. 10 hit me like a ton of bricks! After that I slowly acquired all of the symphonies. And I'm with Florestan in that the richness, invention, and detail elevate these symphonies to immortal status. I just don't get the same feeling listening to Mahler's contemporary Richard Strauss, good as he is.


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## Janspe (Nov 10, 2012)

Hearing the fifth symphony live did the trick for me - it was an unbelievable experience. I had previously familiarized myself only with the first, which I of course liked very much, but the live experience really made me want to delve deeper into Mahler's output. The next defining moment was the discovery of the fourth, a work that I hold in very high regard among his symphonies. Since then I've devoured - and fallen in love with - all of his symphonies, even the seventh and the ninth that caused me some difficulties at first. Mind you, I haven't been listening to his music for very long, only a few years - but his output isn't huge, so it has been fairly easy to get a grasp on his oeuvre.

I also like his lieder a lot, I think he doesn't get enough credit for them!


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## satoru (May 29, 2014)

When I was in high school, I learned that the next piece for the Youth Orchestra was going to be Mahler's 5th. I purchased the score, listened to few LP borrowed from friends with score in hand, studied it and practiced the flute part. I couldn't make to the audition, but that was the first time I started to love Mahler's music. Before that, it was too complex, too long and too gigantic for a simple minded kid. Migrating to other symphonies and vocal works took longer, but Kubelik's set I obtained roughly 10 years later settled me in. Also when I watched through all of Visconti's movies in last years of teen, I obviously run into "Death in Venice" and re-appreciated the intimacy of slow movement of Mahler's 5th, which I half neglected before because there wasn't any flute part in it. Nice and effective use of the music.


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## kanishknishar (Aug 10, 2015)

I didn't get into Mahler as "love at first sight". I tried, failed, came back, slowly assimilated qualities which would be appealing. I always loved the boomy moments though. 

I am jealous of people who fall in love within the first few minutes/bars...


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## TurnaboutVox (Sep 22, 2013)

I was familiar with my father's LP recording of the 4th symphony from childhood (though I don't remember him being keen on it). I had spells of listening to BBC Radio 3 as a child without necessarily taking in non-musical details of what I was hearing so let's just say that when I became conscious of hearing the other Wunderhorn symphonies and the lieder, they weren't entirely unfamiliar, and I knew the unmistakeable sound of the composer's 'voice'.

I bought a few LPs in the late 80s - my mid 20s: first Symphony No. 4 (BPO, von Karajan, recorded 1979); Symphony No. 1 (LSO, Solti, recorded 1964) then the "Leider eines fahrenden Gesellen" and the "Kindertotenleider" (Philh. O., Furtwangler; BPO, Kempe with Fischer-Dieskau, recorded 1955) and "Das Lied von der Erde" (Chicago SO, Reiner recorded 1959) - both reissues. 
I remember my last ever LP purchase was the (glorious) 2nd Symphony with the CBSO & Chorus and Simon Rattle in 1988. 

In memory a CD recording of No. 3 followed shortly afterwards, but in reality I see that it was 10 years later in 1998! I may have acquired #5 (Solti / Chicago SO) and #6 (von Karajan / BPO) in the meantime. I had certainly got to know most of Mahler's orchestral songs about this time through an excellent Philips Duo release (Haitink with the Concertgebouw Orchestra). 

I would admit to finding the later symphonies more difficult to appreciate to begin with - #8 (Chicago SO/Solti and CBSO/Rattle), #9 (Chicago SO, Boulez) and #10 (Philadelphia O., Ormandy; BPO, Rattle) followed over the next decade or so. Eventually I added #7 (Chicago SO, Abbado) 3 or 4 years ago. There wasn't any particular reason I'd held off - I just hadn't got around to it. 

There's certainly something unique about Mahler - rich and complex; flexible and adaptable; looking back over the achievements of the 19th century and forward to the unknown 20th. There are probably about a dozen composers to whose music I return again and again, and Mahler is very firmly one of those. I have had no qualms over adding two box sets of the symphonies to my collection - Tennstedt/LSO and Boulez plays Mahler - as different interpretations are capable of bringing out very different things in these great works.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

starthrower said:


> I was exposed to a lot of the basic repertoire listening to classical radio starting around 1980 or so. But I don't think I ever heard a Mahler symphony. Fast forward to 2009-10 when Mahler fanatic and member Chalkpie encouraged me to get into the symphonies. The bug didn't bite right away, and it would be another couple years before the Adagio from no. 10 hit me like a ton of bricks! After that I slowly acquired all of the symphonies. And I'm with Florestan in that the richness, invention, and detail elevate these symphonies to immortal status. I just don't get the same feeling listening to Mahler's contemporary Richard Strauss, good as he is.


Totally agree apart from the Richard Strauss ref. But that's my bag!!


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## Boldertism (May 21, 2015)

My first Classical love was Beethoven and I couldn't stomach Mahler because he was so different. But with time and a bit of explanation, Mahler crept into my mind and, one day, I heard the Rattle/Birmingham recording of the Resurrection and was swept away.


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## Guest (Jul 24, 2016)

I allways wanted to listen to all the great composers and their various works and Mahler is just one of them.The first symphony was the fourth with the Concertgebouw orchestra with Haitink and Ameling.I saw images of endless space and eternity.I did not like everything and that is still the case.Das Lied von der Erde with Haitink and Janet Baker was an overwhelming experience.The Mahler lieder and Des Knaben wunderhorn are also very dear to me.The ninth has also a very special place.I do like the other symphonies aswell but not in the same way.
I have 8 complete cycles and several wich I bought separately so it is clear that I love Mahler.


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## Johnnie Burgess (Aug 30, 2015)

Mahler 6 was the first one I heard of him.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

My relationship with Mahler has been spotty and, unlike many people's, hasn't changed much over the years. As a high school student I was a member of a mail order record club, and one of the selections was the _Symphony #1_ (under Paul Kletzki, I think, a fine conductor who seems rather forgotten now). I listened to it over and over, quite taken with its programmatic picturesqueness and distinctive orchestration. I loved the feeling of nature awakening at the beginning, thought the minor key "Frere Jacques" very clever and creepy, didn't know enough to catch the bit of Klezmer, and was disappointed with the ending (it is an odd gesture, isn't it?). My next Mahler came a couple of years later:_ Das Lied von der Erde_ (the great recording with Wunderlich and Ludwig under Klemperer). By then my musical experience was much wider, I was a devoted Wagnerite, and I was powerfully impressed by _Das Lied_. It remains my favorite Mahler work. I heard next the _Symphony #4_ live with the Philadelphia orchestra and found it strange and unsympathetic. Its faux naivete and grotesqueries were completely lost on me, and I must say they do little for me now.

In the long run, and in general, I seem to enjoy most early and very late Mahler, especially where he sets words: _Das Klagende Lied_ (somewhat), the first two symphonies, _Das Lied_, and the songs. The early works remain for me wonderfully fresh in feeling, while _Das Lied_ is refined, deep, and transcendental, and is as beautiful a setting of a text as can be imagined. Of the intervening works it's a matter of this movement or that; often Mahler feels, to me, overwrought, vulgar, and annoyingly self-absorbed and self-dramatizing.

Music that pushes toward extremes of expression without a textual reason for doing so (opera, oratorio, or song) and tries to adapt absolute musical structures to make exhaustive statements of personal emotion tends to repel me, perhaps partly because I'm just not sympathetic to the personality so blatantly on display. Come to think of it, I'm in somewhat the same relationship with Schoenberg; I think his post-tonal language suits poetry and drama better than it does string quartets. It's interesting that something like this seems to have been Wagner's view as well: rather recently I discovered a statement by him to the effect that opera and symphony required very different musical approaches, and that composers who thought to borrow ideas of harmony and structure he conceived for purposes of dramatic expression and use them in absolute music were barking up the wrong tree. I wonder what he would have thought of Mahler - or Schoenberg!


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## Xenakiboy (May 8, 2016)

Traverso said:


> I allways wanted to listen to all the great composers and their various works and Mahler is just one of them.The first symphony was the fourth with the Concertgebouw orchestra with Haitink and Ameling.I saw images of endless space and eternity.I did not like everything and that is still the case.Das Lied von der Erde with Haitink and Janet Baker was an overwhelming experience.The Mahler lieder and Des Knaben wunderhorn are also very dear to me.The ninth has also a very special place.I do like the other symphonies aswell but not in the same way.
> I have 8 complete cycles and several wich I bought separately so it is clear that I love Mahler.


Wow, that's quite a devotion!!


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

I bought the Naxos version of Symphony No. 7 in 2002 and liked it. A couple of months later I bought the Klemperer/Philharmonia version of No.2 and liked it. From then on I acquired all his symphonies over several months. 

I have not been able to get into the 8th yet.

Maybe I will, maybe I won't.


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## Scopitone (Nov 22, 2015)

Ukko said:


> 1950 or 51. WQXR AM broadcast, sometime around midnight. Awake because of a toothache. Small table radio, volume on low, to avoid disturbing my brother in the next room. Symphony #1. I could barely hear the quiet parts - which made the loud parts all the more dramatic. Hooked for life.


Great story!

It could have gone the other way -- M's music could have forever been associated with pain for you. :lol:


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## manyene (Feb 7, 2015)

At the deep end - being invited by a friend in 1958 to hear a (non commercial) version of the Mahler 3rd . He lent me a copy of the score to follow, and I was fascinated by the names Mahler gave to each of the movements as well as the sheer length of the 1st movement.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Dr Johnson said:


> I have not been able to get into the 8th yet.
> 
> Maybe I will, maybe I won't.


I check out before the second half. The Faust part hits a sour note with me. The story, not the music.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

This ballet-dancing girl I was infatuated with in High School (1971) played me the Adagio of the Fifth right when all those Bernstein boxes came out. It was used in the movie "Death In Venice," so I wonder what she meant by that? Anyway, I just remember that super-long suspended chord, and thought "that sounds cool."


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

I love these threads where we collectively bind and relate.

To the point re when: I recall two instances, neither of which is firmly set earlier in my mind, so I'll just mention both:

1. I was splayed out in this big open grass field, which is generally used for soccer/lacrosse etc. but the sports are in session like maybe four months of the year. Plus, this field is way out from any nearby school, so it is barely used. Thus I am splayed out in this big open field,and it is just totally empty. Day time, and it was pretty warm, and having just biked over, I had my earphones in, listening to music from a few recent albums I had bought.

I was new to classical music, probably just initially getting into it less than a few months ago at this point. I got hooked on Brahms, and had bought several of his recordings, plus some other miscellaneous orchestral music that was probably linked to the Brahms recordings , because I was just moving from composer-to-composer without guidance at this stage. Mahler's First (Solti) was on of those recordings, so were some Debussy and Beethoven. I just let these play in order of purchase at this point, and finishing Brahms Fourth, which was an early favorite I recall, I was again splayed out on this field, eyes closed, patient and very relaxed and *Mahler's First* happens. I hear something I had never heard before, up until the slow part.

I listened to nothing else for a week.

...then after that week, I listened to the rest of the symphony.

2. I was studying for class and my record player has *Mahler's Second* playing, which I had heard a few times previously, but clearly not picking up any sort of wavelengths. I am listening, and the first movement draws my attention so that I closed my book for the entire thing this time. When it finished, I was just smiling and shaking my head thinking what is wrong me.

The second movement and third movement go, and while not infected yet, I thought they were fun. I remember getting to _Urlicht_ and thinking, _Oh, well this has slowed_. But I kept listening and --

*GAMESETMATCH*


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## Avey (Mar 5, 2013)

Re why:

2. Of all the music I have heard in my (still young) life, I'd pick Mahler's music first.

5. The Ninth's opening movement.
6. The Ninth's finale.

10.








14. The Ninth's rondo.

17. The first time I literally cried listening to music was to Mahler. I have cried two times since that, one of those to Mahler's music also.

24. I cried to the Eighth Symphony, which is generally considered to be his least popular symphony among casual and probably even intermediate listeners, yet is way beyond whatever music would succeed him. Plus, casual and probably even intermediate listeners are so wrong.

27. He literally wrote the music to the Ninth Symphony.

36. He gave us enough of the Tenth.

52. I forgot to say earlier: No one sounds like him; the music is inimitable and incomparable.

88. He allegedly wanted to conduct Ives' Third Symphony.

107. I think that I probably think about him or his music every day (or every other). Just like my favorite author, film, hobby, people etc.

150. This boxset.

148. He was allegedly vegetarian at some point, like maybe.

200. ...computing whether I'll still be around for this boxset...


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## Casebearer (Jan 19, 2016)

I heard some Mahler symphonies (nr. 1 and 4) when I was around 16. I liked them but this liking did not grow into real passion. 

Passion for Mahler came when I discovered his vocal music around my 24th. I have listened to Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder and Rückert-lieder and later Das Lied von der Erde a lot for several years. I've heard many performances I like, e.g. Elly Ameling, Jard van Nes, Kathleen Ferrier, Jessye Norman, Christa Ludwig. Still I think Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau is my all time favorite when it comes to Lieder. 

In later years I now and then heard a Mahler symphony but they didn't hook on immediately or with the same force as the Lieder. So for me Mahler is primarily the Mahler of the Lieder. Maybe I should pay some more attention to the symphonies. I've read here they tend to grow on you!


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

I think I was in middle school when I went through his second symphony for the first time. The sheer impact of the sound could keep my focus on the massive work through. Then I could not wait trying other of his symphonies. At that time, I was mostly attracted by symphonies #1,2,4 and 5, as they are easier for me to get into, and I went through them for countless times.
When I got familiar with more composers/works and was more musically educated, his earlier symphonies gradually faded out for me, but later ones (#6-9) have constantly stayed on my favorite list for the genre. His works have enjoyed a big "revival" during the past decades, numerous recordings and performances have emerged. However, my personal humble opinion on them is somewhat mixed, and I never put all of them along with those of beethoven's, or even with bruckner's.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

People were raving about him and I found it annoying after I had decided a few years ago that his music was okay but not entirely my bag. So, I listened halfway out of spite, halfway out of curiosity. And now it's really interesting and I keep listening to it and exploring. Lots to hear in Mahler's music. This and some other explorations, are continually grounding me out of the 'empty expert mode' that is easy enough to slip into.

I don't see what's so difficult about symphony no. 7. I was just listening to it more attentively today. But perhaps understanding it's many layers does take a bit more time. To these ears, it wants little in surface interest, and is not this deterring thing like I hear about from people.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Manxfeeder said:


> I check out before the second half. The Faust part hits a sour note with me. The story, not the music.


I find the sheer amount of sound in the Ist movement a bit overwhelming.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Dr Johnson said:


> I find the sheer amount of sound in the Ist movement a bit overwhelming.


That's how it should be, let yourself go.....


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Mahlerian: "Mahler's musical language still seems to me to be absolutely unique."

Dunno about 'language', but the orchestral music does seem to me to be different from that of anyone else in, um, effective elements.


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## EarthBoundRules (Sep 25, 2011)

I got into Mahler through his 2nd Symphony due to recommendations from this forum. Loved it to death, especially the finale.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Ukko said:


> Mahlerian: "Mahler's musical language still seems to me to be absolutely unique."
> 
> Dunno about 'language', but the orchestral music does seem to me to be different from that of anyone else in, um, effective elements.


He seems to have used the farthest out late romantic harmonic patterns and maybe certain intuitively informed choices beyond that, along with melodies and melodic gestures that are heavily influenced in parts by romantic composers before him, and he puts it into this framework of very unique orchestration that seems designed for counterpoint(not like Bach, but it's counterpoint). I used to find the strings rather...stringent often, and wasn't so into his use of woodwinds(though it's impossible to dislike the use of brass), but I'm now seeing that it suits the purpose of the musical framework, a framework which allows him to extend ideas and seemingly run completely away with them into something that becomes more like a musical story(very much not necessarily programmatic).

That's my current notion, I guess, as well as I can put it now. Apart from the funny reasons to listen to Mahler I mentioned a few posts ago, I was drawn to the fact that you can observe very very BIG and confidently shaped developmental arcs. This may be the most groundbreaking thing about Mahler. He has managed to combine these things from Bruckner and Wagner, who both knew how to take their sweet time as well. Wagner relied on an operatic program and took even more time. Bruckner relied on over organizing his material at times. It's kind of this trend of time expansion that was not followed as readily as the tonal revolution in Debussy, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky. Shostakovich symphonies do seem to inherit something from this concept, to solid and powerful effect at their best. I don't know about other successors who were looking back on Mahler and Wagner, and maybe Bruckner.


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## Dr Johnson (Jun 26, 2015)

Pugg said:


> That's how it should be, let yourself go.....


One day, maybe...


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

EarthBoundRules said:


> I got into Mahler through his 2nd Symphony due to recommendations from this forum. Loved it to death, especially the finale.


That's the spirit


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## majlis (Jul 24, 2005)

Never got into Mahler. Don't like him.


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## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

I think it was inevitable. I like to not separate music from other culture, it's all messed up for me. Science, art, music, all is one. The way I see Mahler is a bit childish, but I don't care. He's last of the breed, a true prophet. I don't read that much anymore, but I do listen to music. Mahler is telling us the great story of humanity, with the language most accessible for me. Not sure if this makes any sense.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

majlis said:


> Never got into Mahler. Don't like him.


Give the man a second try, who knows a whole new world opens for you.


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