Mahler’s Sixth
Symphony
A great misconception about classical music is that the “great
works” remain an unchanging, immutable revelation encoded into the
score. When performed, those notes, lines, dots, and permissibly vague
directions like “allegro” or “maestoso” should induce mysterious
polarities whose exactly calibrated voltages generate a charge that
shocks the soul into transcendence.
Well, not quite. Great music of any genre should reliably spur
some sort of transcendence—that’s one mark of
greatness—but even a work with printed notes and specific
directions requires performers to make decisions.
In the sixth symphony of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), the usual
choices abound. Every conductor has a different take on how fast
“Allegro energico, ma non troppo” should actually go, yet Mahler’s
symphony poses other problems.
Unlike most other notable composers of his era (Brahms, Debussy,
Schoenberg), Mahler made his living as a conductor. Practical
experience enabled him to squeeze a bit more volume and transparency
from the orchestra, so balancing the brass, wind, and string
sections proves especially troublesome: In the first movement, a
disfigured military march thrumming with menace, Mahler often embeds
blaring horns within massed strings. An adept Mahler conductor like the
Seattle Symphony’s Gerard Schwarz knows when those brass passages
should extend the melodic line or just lurk, malignantly gnawing inside
those blooming violins, violas, cellos, and basses.
The symphony’s finale also features a series of violent hammer
blows. Superstitiously, Mahler crossed out the third hammer blow in the
score; he feared it might lead to his death. Some conductors
heed Mahler’s wish while others include it. Even if you know the
conductor’s preference—Schwarz prefers all three—the hammer
blows still startle.
Unusually for a symphony, Mahler’s sixth compels the conductor to
cope with another, more global, choice. What to play as the second
movement?
As published, the second movement, a scherzo, is a gross parody of
the opening martial “Allegro energico.” Yet in rehearsal and subsequent
performances, Mahler decided that the “Scherzo” and “Andante moderato”
should trade places, placing the “Scherzo” as the third movement.
Mahler’s change of heart permits the conductor to act as a kind
of DJ; live and on recordings, most famed Mahler conductors play
the “Scherzo” second (Zander, Levine, Bernstein, Haitink, Karajan,
Boulez) while others place it third (Barbirolli, Mitropoulos,
Mackerras, and in the early 1970s, Abaddo).
Schwarz and company plan to place the Scherzo third, which will
please some Mahler fanatics and annoy other diehards. I love Mahler,
but I think the order can work either way, depending on how the
conductor casts the “Scherzo” in the symphony’s dramatic arc. Is it a
ghostly, soul-crushing elaboration that should recur much later in the
work or a cruelly mocking echo that must follow the first movement? You
can hear Schwarz and the band make the case for Mahler’s symphony, a
ferocious yet malleable monument, this weekend. 
The Seattle Symphony perform Thurs June 26 at 7:30 pm,
Fri–Sat June 27–28 at 8 pm, and Sun June 29 at 2 pm,
Benaroya Hall, $17–$95.
Thurs 6/26
OLYMPIA EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC FESTIVAL The 14th
incarnation of this long-running DIY festival continues to champion
performance art, avant rock, sound poetry, noise, experimental film,
and other unclassifiable aural acts. During the four-day shindig,
Seattle musicians Bill Horist, Amy Denio, Red Squirrels, and Aphonia
Recordings honcho Ben L. Robertson share the bill with Arachnid Arcade,
Crank Sturgeon, and other groups from around the country. Sunday
showcases a duo collaboration with producer/sound collagist Steve Fisk
and Peter Randlette, electronic music guru at Evergreen State College.
Through Sun June 29. Various venues, check www.myspace.com/olystrange music
for details, $7–$8, $20 for a full festival pass.
Fri 6/27
LAKE UNION CIVIC ORCHESTRA Led by Christophe
Chagnard, LUCO traverses Gustav Holst’s masterwork, The
Planets. Although Holst hoped to portray the astrological traits
of our solar system’s planetary bodies—Holst was an amateur
astrologer—most listeners hear The Planets as a tone
poem describing the Greek gods. Completed a few weeks before the
outbreak of World War I, the ominous first movement, “Mars the Bringer
of War,” simmers with impending doom. I love the ebullient pageantry of
“Mercury, the Winged Messenger” and the majestic “Jupiter, the Bringer
of Jollity,” both propelled by sumptuously scored horns, trumpets, and
trombones. In addition, cellist Julian Schwarz follows in his father’s
footsteps and conducts The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas
(remember the parade of brooms in Fantasia?). Town Hall,
1119 Eighth Ave, 652-4255, 7:30 pm, $10/$15.
Sat 6/28
THE ESOTERICS In a year stocked with centennial
celebrations for composers Olivier Messiaen and Elliott Carter, this a
cappella ensemble commemorates the little-known Hugo Distler
(1908–1942). Branded as “degenerate” by the Nazis, Distler’s
masterly choral works bloom with exotic, Debussy-like harmonies. Also
Sun June 29 at Queen Anne Christian Church at 3 pm. Holy Rosary
Catholic Church, 4139 42nd Ave SW, 935-7779, 8 pm,
$15–$20.
EYES AND EARS PACIFIC VORTEX As part of the
Georgetown Artopia Festival, filmmaker and avant violinist Eric
Ostrowski presents a 90-minute set of experimental films. Walrus
Machine, Ground Tissues (with Joy Von Spain), Paintings for Animals,
and Ostrowski’s duo Chaostic Magic accompany films by Devon Damonte,
Jon Behrens, and others. Also Sun June 29 as part of the Olympia
Experimental Music Festival (see Thurs). Bring earplugs. The
Bottling Plant Film Theatre, 5700 Airport Way S, sets at 4 and 8:30 pm,
free.
WAYNE HORVITZ GRAVITAS QUARTET This unusually
configured quartet (trumpet, piano, cello, and bassoon) embodies
Horvitz’s continuing quest for textures that are new yet cryptically
familiar. Horvitz and his Gravitas cohorts play with such grace that
discerning between composed and improvised elements is almost
impossible. Fourth-floor Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd
Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 7:30 pm, $5–15 sliding-scale
donation.
Tues 7/1
EARLY MUSIC ENSEMBLE OF KIILI An octet of young
musicians from Estonia perform music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance
eras. With guest soprano Eve Kopli. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave,
325-7065, 8 pm, $5/$10/$20.
