I agree. Many years ago I heard the sixth in Birmingham Town Hall (England). The audience started to applaud in the pianissimo before the final climax! The conductor (Louis Fremaux if I remember correctly) just looked devastated.
After the piece finished, the few seconds focused on Claudio Abbado brought a lump to my throat, he must have been exhausted beyond endurance. Taking his illness into consideration I am not surprised. Gee, what a man and what a musician. Beyond human endurance. May his memory and his legacy never be forgotten.!!!!
I gesti, le mani, le espressioni del viso, il suo colloquio muto con gli artisti, il suo entusiasmo nel condividere gli applausi con i singoli e con tutta l'orchestra indicano il suo farsi strumento di realizzazione della bellezza e dell'amore assoluto per la musica. Vederlo mentre dirige aiuta i profani ad entrare nella creazione artistica e nei sentimenti che l'hanno suscitata. Grazie Abbado, ovunque tu sia.
Sig.ra Virginia Tommasone, lei sa parlare al di fuori dei luoghi comuni, cosi' ben sostenuti dalla sua insostenibile prolissità? Penso che Claudio Abbado sarebbe fuggito a gambe levate di fronte al suo "lirismo"...
1:10:34 to 1:10:52 is exceptionally brilliant.The strings that start after the hammer strike create an echo.From 1:10:34 there is a crescendo which turns into something the world has never seen.
1:10:34 Thanks for this time-code. I've come here for the sake of "Bum!" (Faced the shorts about it recently) Now I m curious to listen to it completely.
I've actually thought that for a long time now. However, I have come to much more greatly appreciate the adagietto from the 5th(under Karajan it's truly sublime); being slower it has a much different tone and expresses very different ideas and feelings from the 6th's andante, which is much more of an anguished spirit culminating in triumph to me. But of course that precedes the hammer blows of the final movement. I now like them both a great deal.
Agreed. The 5th Adagietto is a short and sweet love song for his wife Alma scored for strings and harp, while the 6th Andante is a well developed symphonic movement scored for full orchestra that the listener must be patient with before it delivers a double payload in its second half. And when it delivers, OMG, beginning with (1) the return of the main theme at 36:19 in the low brass/double basses, followed by (2) the surprise modulation fully established at 37:16. As you say, Andre, "not from this world."
I´ve listened to Mahler`s symphonies 1to 5 many times and thoroughly enjoy them. In my ignorance I thought this was the best of Mahler. Wow !! I´ve just been blown apart by The Sixth. Mahler was Godly inspired needless to say but it took Abbado´s magical touch , genius and humility to make this touch the stars. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping us listeners see that there really is a new tomorrow on the horizon and that one day the pain we are currently going through will roll away and we´ll always have this incredible music. Thanks too for the supreme performance given by the Lucern Orchestra.
Abbado was such a graceful conductor. Everything balanced, connected, nothing neglected. This is quite a meaty symphony and this group of musicians is so good. The brass have so many wonderful parts throughout this work, including beautiful lyrical passages for the trombones. And wow - the audience doesn't make a sound for a full 40 seconds after the piece ends, letting it slowly settle into the silence!
What a great interpretation and performance! Abbado is very lyrical in this work, seeks out all shades of colours in the music and is not of the school that says speed is king. Wonderfully paced tempi. reminds me of a great predecessor of his, Barbrolli, who also managed to plumb the highs and lows of this work to great effect in live performances. Funny how Italians and those of Italian parentage seem to be so good in Mahler.
I adore the way Maestro Abbado was enjoying wholeheartedly the music and how the Orquestra was magnificently responding & performing the music under his direction. It seems to me he was emotional overwhelmed at the end- almost crying? Maestro Abbado to me was meant to elevate Malher's music to its heavenly limits- which he achieved.
I cannot tell you how many times I have watched and listened to this video! I liked the video ages ago, but thank you for posting! I’m addicted to this symphony and have no idea why
Sublime. Claudio Abbado pasa a la historia como uno de los grandes directores de Mahler de todos los tiempos. Gracias por compartir. Saludos desde México.
Quotations My Sixth will propound riddles the solution of which may be attempted only by a generation which has absorbed and truly digested my first five symphonies. (Mahler, in a letter to Richard Specht). My Sixth seems to be yet another hard nut, one that our critics' feeble little teeth cannot crack. (Mahler, in a letter to Willem Mengelberg). The only Sixth, despite the Pastoral. (Alban Berg, in a letter to Anton Webern).
I adore all Mahler, songs and all but this is sublime. Abbado was so fantastic. I have at least three of all the symphonies but this is magnificent. Ahh the Romance period just makes life really alive.
Difícil expressar o que a musica de Mahler provoca... Cada sinfonia dele é uma obra de arte, puro êxtase. Esse Andante é tão belo e profundo quanto os mais famosos.... Gênio é pouco para Mahler, e essas apresentações de Abbado no festival de Lucerna me parecem um registro definitivo dessas maravilhosas e incomparáveis obras. Só resta desfrutar (uma centena de vezes pelo menos) e agradecer o privilégio de ter acesso a elas assim.
one Abbado performance where many times leads as Celibidache, then getting the maximum excellence among composer, director and orchestra, even visually
I started watching this just for the opening, but it's like a book that you can't put down, and somehow inevitable as though it was waiting for someone to write it. The first movement development section is a particularly fine piece of composition Imho. Great performance by the immortal Abbado.
I am deeply moved, such a amazing interpretation. I know nothing about music, but have listened Mahler's symphonies for about twenty years, a bit strange.
This guy? John Westlake you can not joke about Claudio Abbado. I'm Italian, i'm proud to be Italian; Claudio Abbado is a wonderful expression of Italian Art and Culture in the world. Claudio Abbado and the many Italians Giants of Art, Culture, Science in every time are not your cow boys, if you speak about your cow boys garbage culture, you can to say "guy" but not about Claudio Abbado and Italian Culture...Please, keep silent and learn the respect. Listen pop music, trash "artists" like madonna, lady gaga and many more...it's just your "culture", understand poor guy? Hide yourself, it's better.
Tragic Symphonie...and Claudio Abbado...a wonderful conductor, at such an age he created this wonderful festival in Lucerne ... now he lies in Sils Maria, among the beautiful Alps .. and his soul looks down on this beautiful nature in the Engadin! Merci for all the Beauty! 🙏💙🎼💙💔
I like to think that when I will close my eyes and leave this dimension, in the last glimmer of consciousness, I will listen to these notes and they will be my "great gig in the sky".
The real tragic message of this symphony is that once the first hammer blow has fallen, any further attempts at rehabilitation or comeback are doomed from the start. That's why it has been called nihilistic. 1:21:14 is when the third hammer fall is meant to come. Zander keeps it in. I think it's much more effective, but that's just my opinion.
This was an amazing experience, thank you for this video, you have opened my eyes to Mahler. I don't think i have ever in my life heard such a glorious symphony. Music is such a wonderful thing isn't it?
Not sure if you've already done it, but since this seems to be your first Mahler experience I recommend symphonies number 2, 5, 8 and 9! (Even though they're all amazing!)
We found a link to QelloTV on iTV and the performance of the second movement immediately popped up. BUT, no info about the song, the orchestra or the conductor. My husband and I spent about an hour figuring it out (and yes, we used music listening apps that didn't recognize the piece, I think, because it was a live performance). Then we found this post. I've always enjoyed Mahler, but never heard this piece. The second movement is now, by far, one of my favorite pieces. And the performance of this conductor and orchestra, brilliant. I SO enjoyed it. Thanks so much for posting!
+Jessica Saletti Gago You are certainly right! the entire piece is very difficult! and this orchestra performed the crap out of it :) After the final note of the entire symphony, you can see how much emotion this piece carries as Abbado slowly brings his arms down....the dead silence after is so impactful. It puts a lump in my throat...
I can think of no other symphony that evokes such a complete tragic voice as this. There is Vaughan Williams angry 4th. And Nielsen's 5th with it's crazy snare drum. But nothing as comprehensive as this. As if it were prescient of the two wars that would soon devastate Europe.
Hmmm, Tchaikovsky's finale to the "Pathetique" comes to mind as comparable, but not blazing forth as Mahler's does at times. This example might not be "tragic," but it certainly does touch something similar: The first movement to Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs."
This is not even Mahler's most tragic. The 6th was a relatively uninspired symphony (barring the andante), and really just an imitation of Beethoven's 5th. Mahler's life at this point was going fine, he had no real emotion to pour into the music. Listen to his 9th and 10th symphonies, when his wife was having an affair, his brother had committed suicide, his daughter had died, and he just learned he had a fatal heart condition. That is where a real sense of tragedy can be heard, the adagio of the 9th is so painful you feel like you are going to die yourself. It is the greatest extremes of human emotion one could put down on paper.
I'm 26 years old and this is almost the first time I listen to this masterpiece whole-heartedly. I felt that Mahler wanted to tell some stories that happened to him, and to convey something deeply profound emotion. However, at this age I couldn't really get touched by this piece, through the melody, the tonality... I surely thought the second movement is very beautiful, but other movement I felt little about them. When the Finale went to the end, I knew something profound was inside there but also I knew there's a string deep in my heart didn't vibrate. I was depressed that I didn't feel nothing. I genuine hope someone could tell me maybe one or two stories that you think of after listen to this great piece. Thanks for your reading I know its sort of hard to understand my poor English comment.
I've been listening to Classical music since I was 17. Some composers just take more time than others to appreciate. Mahler is not easily accessible. His themes are dense and expansive, the development sections can be overwhelming in their complexity, and the orchestration is so massive and idiosyncratic that it might pound you with full bombast one moment, lull you into a semi-hypnotic state the next, and then invite you to strange, alien worlds which you have never ventured to in the middle. At last though, his expressive voice always breaks through the whirlwind of sound and timbre and you can hear radiant emotion that has no equal really. I'm still learning to listen to Mahler. It is a life's journey with great rewards at the end.
@@composeratlarge perfectly put. Mahler ain't no Tchaikovsky, no Mozart, no Mendelssohn - composers who please everyone from the get go. This is highly demanding music, and let's be real, it can be either an abrasive and annoying experience you won't ever want to be near again from or nothing short of a great awakening. I've been listening to Mahler since I was a kid and just for instance I started to 'get' his Seventh just a couple of years ago, so I reckon there's so much work to do for an outsider.
It may be because you experience less sadness in life. Experience sadness and listen to it. What were the three tragedies of my life? I listened to the tragedy while remembering it. Tears flowed at the end. I also heard number 6 for the first time today. The last 3 hits ... It is said to have predicted three tragedies. (interpretation of wife Amal) When writing this song, Mahler had a happy time.
I think compared to many other Mahler symphonies this is a difficult one to understand. First you should try these, in order if you like. 4 is quite easy to understand, as are 8 and 2: 4,8,2,9,5. Listen to those symphonies and you should have a much better understanding of Mahler and how he approaches music.
Incredible performance! Abbado sure deserves the credit. The ending is devastating and yet truelly emotive! The beauty of despair are expressed so beautifully. It is macabre to make such a statement but this is how one feels after listening to the symphony
Me pareció que duró una eternidad, vi pasar mi vida en eso… cuando termino solo fue hora y media y mi vida dura mas que eso!!!… solo la música tiene esa facultad, yo desapareceré como como el último sonido, pero esta obra perdurará y sobrepasará a las culturas… eso depende de la unión de muchas pequeñas eternidades…..( mi comentario es con lágrimas de lo sublime que acabo de escuchar…. Espero explicarme…)
I realize just how depressed my young self was when I remember myself sobbing through this sympathy at 16. It should have an emotional age restriction!
