Mahler Symphony No. 9, Part 3

It's easy to forget that Mahler, for all of his ubiquitous
success nowadays, was much better known as a conductor during his
life than as a composer.  He had basically one major success
in his compositional career: a performance of his 8th symphony in
Munich in 1910 that finally seemed to give him the approval he
craved from the audience.  But for much of his compositional
life, Mahler was misunderstood. His symphonies were either too
long, too dense, too confusing, too esoteric, too vulgar, too
banal, lacking in sophistication, or had too MUCH sophistication
- the list goes on and on.  Mahler famously said in regards
to his music that “my time will come” and it certainly has come,
with regular performances of his music all around the
world.  But as we discuss the third movement of Mahler’s 9th
symphony today, I want to keep reminding you that Mahler was
really not a popular man.  Even as a conductor, he had
bitter enemies that drove him out of his position as the Director
of the Vienna Court Opera in 1907.  As a person, he could
charitably be described as difficult, with moments of kindness
followed by bouts of stony silence or fierce rages.  Mahler
was a complicated man, and it's perhaps in this third movement
that we can learn so much about this side of Mahler that doesn’t
get talked about as much - that bitter, sarcastic, nasty side of
him that many choose to ignore, preferring to focus on the love
and warmth that he instills into much of his music.  In the
third movement of his 9th symphony, Mahler seems to be letting
out some of his rage and anger at the Viennese public, concerned
in his mind only with intrigue and gossip, and those critics who
trafficked in open Anti-Semitism in order to bring him down from
his lofty perch.  But amidst all of this, Mahler continually
grasps for order throughout the movement, only to find it ripped
away from him.  This is the shortest movement of Mahler’s
9th symphony, but it is also the most dense.  So today,
we’ll talk about that bitter pill that is this movement, a
movement that is nevertheless relentless in its search for
beauty, form, and order. Join us!