Mahler conducted the premiere of the Eighth Symphony in September 1910, four years after completing the work and just eight months before he died. The performance, Mahler’s last as a conductor in Europe, was to be the greatest triumph he ever experienced as a composer. But the preparation leading up to this event did not go smoothly. Beginning early in 1910, many months before the performance, Mahler exchanged several letters with Emil Gutmann, the impresario who had persuaded Mahler to conduct the premiere for a Mahler festival in Munich. Growing increasingly concerned, Mahler began to insist, sometimes frantically, that the performance be called off. He was particularly certain that the choirs could not learn their parts in time. In a letter to his trusted friend Bruno Walter, Mahler warned that he “shall ruthlessly [Mahler’s emphasis] cancel the whole thing if all artistic conditions are not met to my satisfaction.” A few weeks later, however, Mahler seemed to have resigned himself to a fiasco.
He wrote Walter, “Until today I have been fighting inwardly and outwardly against this catastrophic Barnum-and-Bailey performance of my Eighth in Munich. When [Gutmann] took me unawares in Vienna that time, I didn’t stop to think of all the to-do that goes with such ‘festivals’.” Mahler continues that, even though he is convinced the performance will be “utterly inadequate,” he sees no way to escape from his obligations.
It didn’t help matters when Mahler learned, much to his dissatisfaction, that Gutmann had nicknamed his work “The Symphony of a Thousand.” The tag, of course, is a rather shallow one to apply to a symphony by Mahler. It was not only correct, however, it was an understatement. As the program supervised by Mahler for the 1910 premiere of the Symphony states, the work required 858 singers and 171 instrumentalists. To counter the effect of so many singers, Mahler had to augment the standard orchestra. Thus, he increases it to 84 strings, 6 harps, 22 woodwinds, and 17 brass players. The score also requested that 4 trumpets and 4 trombones be placed apart. To assemble such a body of singers, it was necessary to supplement the Munich chorus (which included 350 children) with large groups from Vienna and Leipzig. The eight soloists came from Munich, Vienna, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin, and Wiesbaden. The first performance, then, seemed to match in spirit Mahler’s attitude to the work, which he once called “a gift to the nation.”
http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/music/symphony-no-8-symphony-of-thousand-gustav-mahler
9 comments:
Donk, am I allowed to comment on your articles or am I just going to get deleted?
Soc, I don't even remember the last time I slighted you publicly...but you still keep slandering me on Twitter. Makes no fucking sense. Makes no fucking sense that you call me a paid fake or useful idiot or cointel or wtf. You dislike Obama...but the fact that I do, too, somehow makes me a paid fake.
You seem to forget that I'm the one that paid for audio tapes of your Kimberlin court battle and sent to you so you can write a transcript. I'm the one that opened your eyes to the wackadoos you were working with for two years!
My minor in college was History....and it focused on Civil Rights. Claiming that I've never written about police brutality etc. is unreal. I used to condemn
But you want to keep pretending that RAW STORY was BRADBLOG. I've told you countless times that we got rid of Jason Leopold. That I got rid of Brad Blog links from the banners. That I got rid of the Velvet Revolution link we had up on the front page. That I didn't even get along with Larisa. But you still imply I work with Kimberlin? Just because I cursed you out because you defended Aaron Worthing?
I still check out your tweets and blog sometimes...and I still see you calling people a paid fake or other insults...when are you going to chill on that? Not everyone on the internet is a paid fake.
I'm far to the left...but I've been a fair reporter since 2004. My first article at RAW STORY was about Rumsfeld and Bush bombing Iraq before Congress gave the okay. My second article was about Clinton bombing Iraq more than Bush did before the war. How the hell does anything in my background suggest that I'm a kook or work for the gov't? I report on both sides, and always have.
Anyway, dude, I'm the only person on the internet that defended you when jay leiderman and nadia naffe slandered you in that Boston weekly. And I'm willing to bury the hatchet if you are. The things you say about me make no fucking sense. I'm a journalist who is friends with conservatives and liberals, hired conservatives and liberals, and has gotten linked by conservatives and liberals for nearly ten years.
And I don't duck questions.
I used to condemn liberals who ignored police brutality against blacks. And I do tweet about that every now and then..but obviously i'm extremely busy covering Clinton, who you don't like, but, um, you think my articles are boring? wtf dude, i can't win any way with you.
The source of that smear I work for cops or gov't came from the Breitbart Unmasked blog...I have no clue why you think I would be pro-cop LMAO. That sure as hell ain't hard to research. I was falsely arrested twice! My 2nd favorite show of all time is The Shield, about police corruption. I admire Serpico. I mean, seriously, dude, where do your complaints about me come from? And prove how I'm the slightest bit crazy. I've been falsely accused of crimes for four years and everyone on the left pretty much still hates me. But I'm supposed to hate conservatives that link to my reporting? All those wackadoos are still doing their wackadoo shit. My stories are being reported by Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, Huffington Post, Judicial Watch, DC Examiner, BBC, and, hell, even Breitbart News journos
Also, I'm willing to go line by line on my article on you. I know that there are a few mistakes in there. I removed the picture, you forget.
Anyway, the main reason I'm leaving this comment is because I was rereading the article about the emails AW sent you. And I had a thought.
Isn't it weird how none of those emails showed up in the leak? And none from Liberty Chick? Just Patterico and Aaron emails, mostly written by the former? And isn't it weird how no one ever filed a bar complaint against Aaron? And how none of these trials go anywhere but they take forever?
http://davefromqueens2.blogspot.com/2012/07/fattericos-outrageous-cybersmear-of-ron.html
"I spoke on the phone with Ron last week. He sounded quite sane and gentle. He's clearly, imho, a much nicer person in real life than on the internet."
i think many times people misunderstand my sense of humor. Sarcasm is sometimes really hard to tell in Tweets. I do have a temper and curse...I'm from NY...and I was an Editor! But, yes, I felt the same about you. You were extremely nice on the phone...and far different from what you sound like on twitter and your blog.
I won't delete the posts above, but I have told Ron through Twitter that he is not allowed to blog here. If you have a problem with that donkeytale, you can tweet to him or go to his blog or wtf. But not here.
I'm not going to dwell too much on what he wrote above, but a few things are outright lies.
I'm the one that opened your eyes to the wackadoos you were working with for two years!
I wasn't working with anyone. I did what I did and got used by the Breitbarts, while cybersmeared by Ron Brynaert. There was no two year anything.
I talked on the phone with Mandy a few times. With Aaron. Even with Patterico and Marc Randazza too somehow sleazed his way into my life.
Aaron was never my lawyer.
This is all fucking bullshit. Even donkeytale knows BK was the star and I was the one who exposed him, then all that other shite took place.
The beauty of the paid fake or useful idiot phrase is that one needn't stress over finding pay stubs.
Is Louis Farrakhan a paid fake or useful idiot? I covered him a bit today on Twitter. There is some mind blowing truth about that dude. He admitted to killing Malcolm X. He believes he has been visited by aliens who are on his side or wtf. He is also a scientologist! You can't make this stuff up and it is now part of the herstorical record.
It was actually donkeytale who opened up my eyes. The flashpoint was his waking me up from the dogmatic slumber that Patterico was a regular guy right wing nut job. Then everything fell into place, e.g. ohhhh, aaahhhhhhaaaaaaaa. I'mmmmmmm doooonnnnne
Ron opened my eyes up to Mandy Nagy. That is true. He shared the email in which Mandy in I think October 2011 thought I was working with Neal Rauhauser. It was a ridiculous idea and one I never imagined she could think was true. I thought she cared and understood. So not only did she plagiarize my work, she felt I was some kind of paid fake. I was a useful idiot. Get your facts straight. I'm sorry she is apparently in a near vegetative state, but facts are facts.
The Aaron emails were brilliant. I agree with Ron on that, though I am not too keen on exploring any further "ideas" he feels they convey.
What the Walker emails showed was that Aaron's mentally unhinged. And the email Ron shared from a specific interaction between himself and Mandy showed the same about herself.
Ron barraged me with tweets and even posts here after I told him not to. People have the right to be left alone.
I just linked to your Troll Wars III. I screenshot tweeted the end where yes, the leftier than thou longtime rival of Aaron's actually stood up for him saying it was pretty grotesque how alleged progressives such as Roy and I suppose the Matt Osborne/Karoli/Neal et al types were set on destroying Aaron.
And all because he fit their anti-Breitbart agenda.
I suppose Roy saw an opening because we had a bit of gridlock by the end of the previous thread.
I like you and would rather listen to your ideas and bounce off of them. Ron, no, and the fact that he can't just write a few sentences and leave it at that, that instead he must become obsessed and never let up kinda sorta backs what you reported back in late 2011.
Thanks for watching my back back then and I know you tried your best.
I don't really care to go back in time too much. He says he is going to delete his tweets from today. I don't know. I saved the comments he made here that I deleted after asking him to stop posting here. I saved the tweets. I didn't read them too closely because I don't feel like being victimised again.
One idea I skim grokked was his opinion that I am garbage going after cops and writing on African American issues and especially with going after so-called Black leaders.
If Roy is lonely, I suppose he can talk with Stranahan. They seem to be on good terms.
Hillary had nearly every Black vote. I think I did pretty good. I don't think it was chopped liver what I reported on CNN and the all lives matter distortion. I'm pretty sure I didn't cost Bernie any votes. That is a ridiculous notion, imho.
I've never made myself to be anything more than a nobody blogger.
That doesn't mean I'm not proud of what I uncovered.
And no matter how hazy or amateurish any of my blogging has been been, some of it has been excellent and nearly all of it has been written from a starting point of intellectual integrity, curiousity, and abiding to herstoric rules developed over centuries of academic medium.
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