Resurrection

As noted in the previous post from a couple of months back, I have been working over the summer on a paper to submit for a conference. I'm nearing the end of that, so I thought I'd take the time for a couple of notes here about other things that have happened recently.

On July 12, Sandra and I went to the Oregon Bach Festival's performance of Mahler's 2nd symphony, titled "Resurrection". (My favorite piece of music, one that's meant a tremendous amount to me in a variety of contexts over the years. All of Mahler's symphonies mean a lot to me as I take the time to inhabit the worlds they create, but it's the 2nd that I always come back to.)

I didn't know how much to expect from this performance. Especially in the era of "historically informed performance", Bach and Mahler occupy rather different corners of the classical music universe. And Matthew Halls, the conductor, is someone I've never heard of before (though Sandra happened to run into him at Resurrection

And it was....perfect. I had no occasion to stop and question the conducting or performance, because I was hearing the music of Mahler from beginning to end, delivered with the utmost passion and devotion to the music. This is far more rare than it ought to be.

I believe it is the only concert I've attended that brought tears of emotion. I haven't listened to the 2nd symphony since, so as to not lose what I have of the memory of this performance. (Don't worry, I will.) But for those of you who didn't have this experience, I'll give you another good performance for your enjoyment.

The theme of resurrection is, of course, very Christian. Unlike Lutheran Bach and Catholic Bruckner, Mahler's religious/spiritual biography is complicated. Like Beethoven's, perhaps, but even more so. Mahler began, and arguably remained at heart, a Czech Jew. However, in order become conductor of the Vienna State Opera in the senescence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he had to convert to Catholicism, and did, seemingly without qualm. Looking at his music reveals a syncretist spirituality that was at its core Pantheistic. You get Jewish folk tunes throughout, settings of Catholic hymns and legends of at least one saint, Cinese nature poetry, and texts from Goethe and Nietzsche. And that's where I'm at: a naturalistic pantheist who takes inspiration from a variety of sources. I don't believe in resurrection after death, but do believe that the idea of resurrection can mean something in the course of one's life. And that music can be a part of it.