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The Works
We’re talking about the music we play. This is the official repertoire blog of the musicians of the Oregon Symphony.- Mahler, Symphony No. 9
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If you want to know the roots of Shostakovich’s symphonic writing, in particular his Fifth Symphony, listen to Mahler’s Ninth. I am stuck by how modern this piece is, especially in the moments where the emotion of the music is almost hollow, where all hope is spent. Other similarities exist, in the disjoint melodic lines, the harmonies with painful dissonances that resolve only after much struggle. Some of the colors are identical in the the two symphonies, and there is the quotation of the second movement in Shostakovich’s 5th that is unmistakable.
Yet, Mahler’s symphony has comfort too, or at least the memory of it. The opening of the work is the most tender orchestral music I know of.- Jonathan Dubay
April 27th, 2008
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