Welcome and Introduction
Colorado MahlerFest Artistic Director Kenneth Woods welcomes you with a personal video from his home in the United Kingdom.
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Visions of Childhood
Link to the video at the bottom.
You may be aware that our own Kenneth Woods is the artistic director of the English Symphony Orchestra, based in Worcestershire, England. In October, Ken conducted the ESO in a program that is part of their “Music from Wyastone – Studio Concert Series.”
In 1892, Gustav Mahler completed a song based on a poem from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn) called Das himmlische Leben (The Heavenly Life). It appears at first glance to be a modest work, mostly gentle, tender and playful in character, describing a child’s view of Heaven as a land of plenty, and place of serene happiness. It is a work that seems simple, but Mahler understood that The Heavenly Life was actually one of his most profound and multi-layered compositions, and he eventually decided that it should serve as the finale of his next symphony.
Between 1892 and 1896, Mahler worked on his Third Symphony, the work which still holds pride of place as the longest symphony ever written by a major composer. Throughout this work, he threaded dozens of references to The Heavenly Life, preparing the way for the song to appear at the end of this epic journey. But it was not to be – after composing the Third’s huge Adagio, Mahler realized that, at 100 minutes, the Third Symphony was complete, and The Heavenly Life was destined to find its home in the Fourth Symphony, which he could complete four years later. Thus, this modest song was to be the focal point of Mahler’s creative life for nearly nine years.
What are the many themes in the poem which so inspired Mahler? This moving program takes the listener on a journey that is both musical and spiritual, exploring both the composers and the ideas that influenced Mahler.
Watch Ken’s Introduction to the Concert – Link to full concert below
The English Symphony Orchestra is offering MahlerFest patrons two weeks to access this concert and their entire archives for free. Sign up with a name and email address to access their entire site. To access the program, follow this link http://eso.co.uk/register/2020fall and register for your free access. Once you’ve registered, look for the “Visions of Childhood” program on the left side under “Latest ESO Digital Content.”
A huge thank you to everyone at the ESO for making this possible!