Mahler: Ideas & Insights - Mahlerfest

Mahler: Ideas & Insights

Saturday, May 16, Time TBD - FREE
eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce Street, Boulder

The entire symposium is free and open to the public. There is no registration required. You should feel free to attend the whole day or individual talks and to come and go as you please. 

Coffee wil be avaliable during the morning.
Lunch is included and will be served in the lower level of eTown Hall.  

 

Schedule and Synopses

10 AM | "Saying Farewell: Musical Autobiography and the Curse of the Ninth" - Thomas Peattie, Associate Professor of Music at the University of Mississippi

The often-repeated story that Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (1908–09) represents a farewell to life continues to shape our understanding of what came to be the composer’s last completed symphony. Closely bound up with this “farewell story” is an equally influential tale centered around Mahler’s own claim that since no great writer of symphonies had ever surpassed the hallowed number achieved by his forebear, Ludwig van Beethoven, to undertake the composition of such a work would be to tempt fate. In this talk I consider the origins of these intertwined stories and show how their persistence both helps and hinders our understanding of Mahler’s late symphonic writing. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which narratives of illness and death (shaped in part by Mahler’s own biography) have haunted the symphony’s popular and critical reception. I will also consider why these narratives continue to be used as interpretive keys in our seemingly insatiable quest to explain the meaning of a work that remains among the composer’s most powerful and moving utterances.

 

11:10 AM | "Bringing Mahler to the Stage" - Colloquy/Panel discussion including insights into representing Alma and Gustav - Joseph Horowitz with Esther Van Zyl and Jack Tamburri

Joseph Horowitz’s 2023 novel about the Mahlers in New York uses the challenges of an intense new environment to highlight the challenges of a fraught marriage. In the novel, we hear from both Gustav and Alma in the first person in juxtaposition with third-person description. In the play, Horowitz – surprisingly -- has adopted the same strategy, with each actor – Gustav and Alma – both inhabiting and observing themselves. Horowitz and director Jack Tamburri auditioned two dozen actresses before choosing Esther van Zyl, whose preparations for the role included extensive reading. Tamburri edited the script and added visual elements. The first performance, in April, was a trial run at the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor, leading to further revision. Horowitz undertook this project having for decades studied the musical life of New York City at turn of the twentieth century – which he regards as the apex moment for classical music in the United States.

 

Lunch | Lunch is Provided - Information Coming Soon

1:20 PM | “Fin-de-siècle Vienna and the Psychedelic Sixties: Sympathetic Resonances and Spiritual Aspirations” - John Covach, Director of the University of Rochester’s Institute for Popular Music

 

2:30 PM | "Mahler in New York: Different Perspectives" - Joseph Horowitz and Hilan Warshaw, moderated by Thomas Tape

At the pinnacle of his career, after a decade as Director of the Vienna Court Opera, Mahler set his sights on New York City.  First as Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and later as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. His musical endeavors with these two legendary musical organizations would prove to be contentious. During these last four tumultuous years of Mahler's life, he would also compose Das Lied von der Erde, the 9th Symphony, and the unfinished 10th Symphony. Joseph Horowitz and Hilan Warshaw will share their perspectives on Mahler's time in New York.  Symposium attendees are encouraged to also attend the screening of Hilan Warshaw's film: "Mahler in New York" as well as Joseph Horowitz' play: "The Mahlers in New York," both on Thursday, May 14.
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