YCGL - Saturday and Sunday - October 22-23, 2022 - Boston Symphony and Family

 It started with a simple text.  Erik wrote:

My reaction was immediate, although I did take time to look at the link describing the Boston Symphony Orchestra playing Mahler's 6th Symphony.  After the first word "Mahler", though, my answer was "yes.  Yes.  Yes!"  Erik did get 1st Balcony tickets, but wisely upscaled my request so that we sat much closer to the orchestra than the back of the balcony.  The hall's acclaimed acoustics took over the rest, we could hear the double basses as well as the percussions.  

Boston Symphony Hall,

considered one of the great music halls in the world.

And speaking of instruments, there are a lot of them!  Being in the late Romantic era (historically right after Wagner), Mahler's symphonies are scored for some of the largest orchestras in classical music.  There were probably 110 performers on stage.  

Among many others, it includes 8 French Horns, 6 trumpets, 2 harps and one or two celestas.  It's the percussion section that is really striking:  Two sets of timpani, tam-tams, snare drums, an extra large bass drum, xylophone, glockenspiel, rattles, triangle, cymbals, low pitched bells, cowbells, birch brush and hammer.  The five percussionists were running all over the back of the stage (including some drumming behind the stage).  But Erik and I agreed that we wanted to be the hammer player.  

The hammer and box are behind the second harpist.  The hammer is a large gavel (even bigger than the one we use for the business meeting at WESS).  It is struck three times during the last movement.  I think he must have gone out to Starbuck's between hammer blows.  

(It's Mahler's 8th, the Symphony of a Thousand, that wins the prize though.  It is scored for a 115 member orchestra including organ, two full choirs, a brass band that is located in the back of the top balcony, and a boys choir.  The premier performance included 1039 performers, including 350 members of the boy's choir!)

The 6th symphony was written during the summers of 1903-4 and first performed in 1906.  He was at a high point in his life.  He was one of the best known conductor's in the world, including the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera from 1908-1910.  He had recently married Alma and had two daughters.  He had purchased at retreat in southern Austria where he composed his 5th, 6th and 7th symphonies.  But the 6th Symphony is known as the "Tragic".  It is mostly in A minor.  You've probably heard parts of it.  Mahler's 6th Symphony, Leonard Bernstein Conducting.  In the reviews of this performance, various people have said each of the four sections was their favorite piece of music.  Listen to the first two minutes and you'll know where John Williams got his inspiration for the Star Wars series.  (It's interesting to note that Mahler wrote the song cycle "Kindertotenlieder", Songs on the Death of Children, at the same time as the 6th.)

It's the fourth movement that most people remember.  A lot has been written about this movement.  It is written in a classical sonata form.  It is wild, it is explosive, it is loud, the nature of the huge orchestra. Don't have the speakers turned up too loud or the forte-forte-fortissimos will do not-good-things to your speakers unless they are really high quality.  On the other hand, why listen to Mahler if you don't want to play it with gusto!  (By the way, I'm playing this as I'm writing.)  

But its the hammer blows that people focus on.  There are two or three hammer blows.  As originally written, there were three.  Alma wrote much later that they represented the hammer blows of fate striking down the tragic hero.  But Gustave and Alma were superstitious, and after the last rehearsal, he took out the third, "fatal" blow.  The first published edition had it, subsequent ones did not.  Now days, it has become a conductor's choice.  Some put it in, others don't.  Music director and conductor Andris Nelsons put it in.  Where we were sitting, we could watch the percussionist "wind up for the pitch and swing!"  (Too late in the season for a Red Sox game.)

Spoiler Alert:  If you do listen to it to the end, the music dies down to a quiet A minor chord  at around 1:26:00 and stops at 1:26:20.  Then BANG!!! at 1:26:22.  As one commentator wrote "If you are wearing headphones, RIP to your eardrums."  You've been warned.  

It was a great and thrilling concert.  It was 80 minutes of solid sound.  But Mahler is like that.  None of his symphonies are simple ditties.  Wow!

Afterwards, I was taking a selfie to show we really were there.  The section usher came to us and offered to take our picture, so here we are!  Then Erik ran off for a Hasher party and I stayed and walked around the balcony hallway.  There were picture displays of the house, the conductors, the contributors, etc. Finally, the usher came up and said, "Excuse me, we're closing".  As I walked out, I heard "There's one more left."  "No, I think that's it."  Last person out...... just like church. :)

The next day, Sunday, October 23, we were going to take a drive through the countryside and look at the trees in mid color change.  Unfortunately, it was raining, so we nixed that, but then still went out to Eliza's parents house west of town.  Her parents were on a 2 week business/family trip to California so her brother Aaron and his wife and two babies were housesitting.  The parents were due in that day, but Eliza didn't know when, so we just chanced it.  When we got there, John and Susan had just dropped their bags off in the entryway and greeted the dog and the grandbabies and Aaron and Mia, and then turned and greeted us.  Perfect timing.  Aaron fixed a great meal of Indian over rice.  After dinner, we talked for another hour, but by then, a full days travel caught up with them, so we left, full and happy.

Then I left on Monday, the 24th.  I had packed my bag on Sunday afternoon (I'm so efficient, ha) So Erik could drop me off without any fanfare or crazy antics to get to the airport.  

It was a great visit!  I left with wanting to come back for more.  And there is plenty of more there!  Next year!