Yet another chilly morning...

Splendid Dawn in the sky earlier and a lovely day ahead, Deo gratias; maybe 43° now and perhaps the upper 60s in the late afternoon. Three concerts to think about this morning. Will certainly listen to the Chopin Institute's Olli Mustonen recital, whether live or later on. 

Klassikaraadio is broadcasting the opening concert of the 12th International Piano Festival at Tallinn, celebrating Beethoven. The Estonian National Symphony along with soloists Age Juurikas (the 'Emperor' Concerto in E flat major op 73--  all five of the piano concerti will be performed during the Festival) and Maksim Šchura (the Choral Fantasy in C minor). Between the Beethoven works, the ENO will perform Rodion Shchedrin's Beethoven's Heiligenstädter Testament, a 2008 commission of the Bayerische Rundfunk. I will admit to believing that Maestro Shchedrin, who came up here yesterday too, had died some time ago; evidently he remains with us, in December reaching the age of 88.

 

 

The third concert I hope to hear is broadcast later by Rai Radio 3, Bruckner's Te Deum in C major and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Antonio Pappano is conducting the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the City. 

It is a great help when orchestras etc (or Saint-Eugène for Mass and Vespers, for that matter) use YouTube because that platform always (almost always? I have been listening to Gilbert and Sullivan in the evenings, ahem) gives the correct concert time here on the Left Coast along with providing a timer displaying how many minutes remain before the event happens. For those of us time zone-calculating challenged it is a useful service. Some of the orchestras are this 'user friendly' on their own platforms e.g. the Berlin Philharmonic and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

 

A recording of the Beethoven's Heiligenstädter Testament doesn't seem to be at YouTube.

From Isaac Sligh's Week in Review post at the New Criterion's 'Dispatch', on the Munich premiere of Mahler's Symphony no 8. 

... It hit a stronger nerve at its 1908 premier in Munich, which played host to a who’s who of the European intelligentsia, as Philip Hensher writes for The Spectator in his review of a new book on the piece. Of the many celebrity attendees who felt its outsize effect, a stunned Thomas Mann was inspired to base Death in Venice’s Gustav von Aschenbach on Mahler, and Gropius himself was moved to the point of breaking off his affair with Alma. No small feat.

Is this correct? I don't see Mahler gazing rapturously at Tadzio bathing in the sea; maybe he means what's his name, Adrian Leverkühn, in Doktor Faustus? Am not going any farther than Wikipedia in my researches here.

... Mann's original intention was to write about "passion as confusion and degradation,” after having been fascinated by the true story of Goethe's love for 18-year-old Baroness Ulrike von Levetzow, which had led Goethe to write his "Marienbad Elegy". The May 1911 death of composer Gustav Mahler in Vienna and Mann's interest in the boy Władzio during summer 1911 vacation in Venice were additional experiences occupying his thoughts.... Mann was also influenced by Sigmund Freud and his views on dreams, as well as by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who had visited Venice several times.

 

Hmm.

 
... The novella's physical description of Aschenbach was based on a photograph of the composer Gustav Mahler. Mahler had made a strong personal impression on Mann when they met in Munich, and Mann was shocked by the news of Mahler's death in Vienna. Mann gave Mahler's first name and facial appearance to Aschenbach, but did not talk about it in public.

 

From that, it is fairly obvious that 'based on Death in Venice's Gustav von Aschenbach' is rather a stretch, although 'the novella's physical description of Aschenbach is based on a photograph of Mahler' wouldn't have been, and maybe that is precisely what Mr Sligh meant. But who knows; I've never read serious biographies of Mann or Mahler and Wikipedia certainly has its limitations. 

 

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