I truly appreciate this interview for its honesty, bolt ideas & sincere POV of Esa-Pekka Salone on Malher's music which provides an unique view that most of the general public tend to ignore, which is the musical flaws behind the genius
This is probably my favorite of all the UE interviews I watched. I really like Salonen's approach to Mahler's MUSIC, with an honest and relatable opinion that there're absolute beautiful moments and at the same time nearly banal ones that're okay to dislike for MUSIC's sake Too often Mahler's MUSIC is covered by Mahler as a 'CULT ICON', and we hear/see so many people (including great musicians) talking about Mahler either like he's a God who turns everything he touches into gold (just read this comment section where people judge Salonen as 'not understading and dislikes' their idol because of his body language), or on the other hand totally avoids the whole body of work like plague only because it's Mahler
this interview has a transcript at the site, and is much more comprehensive, and when u read the all interview, it is much more respectfull, for example salonen do understand that mahler put the banal parts intentionally, in order to create his "whole world symphonys"/k
He's obviously a conductor who not only seems not to understand Mahler but deep down inside it seems he dislikes his music.. It certainly appears so, not only judging from his words but from his body language also. He doesn't want to readily admit it though. How can one interpret a composer on these terms? Just watch the Chailly interview and notice the difference! The interview is good in the sense that it manages to bring out out the true feelings and thoughts of the conductor about the music. Next one please!
Because Mahler the man and his music are such complex subjects, I think Maestro Salonen had difficulty answering in English which is not his first language. Also, his native tongue of Finnish is linguistically removed from the vocabulary of the Germanic and Romance languages that predominate in Europe. Hence, he resorts to numerous physical gestures in the interview as if he was conducting, probably to compensate for his lack of verbal articulation. I think if he had been able to answer in Finnish with English translation, we would have gotten a much better glimpse into his perspectives on Mahler.
Why would he conduct Mahler if he doesn’t like his music? Clearly he has his own opinions about Mahler’s work-it’s not a coincidence he’s selective about which Mahler symphonies he conducts. It’s okay for a conductor to not be able to resonate with every piece a composer writes.
@ I don’t think he would conduct Mahler 9 in particular basically yearly if he didn’t have affection for the piece. Maybe he doesn’t like every one of Mahler’s symphonies- he made that clear- but he clearly enjoys conducting some of his works.
