Mahler 9th and the Search For Truth

This afternoon we were treated to a live television performance of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra featuring one work on the program: the Mahler 9th Symphony. It was conducted by Herbert Blomstedt, once a very favourite conductor of ours whom we had not seen in decades.  He is now in his 99th year (!!!) and still at it, appearing in Detroit to conduct this magnificent work.  Needless to say it is a sprawling work, with more to say about life and human existence in its 90 minutes than one could ever imagine.  While our search for Truth has taken many forms over our own longish life spans, music has been in the forefront and for very good reasons.

 

Is Truth an abstract idea or a concrete one?  Being the ultimate in ideas, the one we all are striving towards in some way or other, it is likely both and more.  The close study of Bach will bring one face to face with its abstract appearance, though his large religious works (such as the B Minor Mass) also reflect on human suffering and joy.  Listening to Mozart symphonies 35-41 will bring out the abstract even more clearly than Bach, with the joy of life also represented in his operas.  The struggles that Beethoven endured represent exactly what it means to be human: suffering, more suffering, some joy, perhaps, and then it is all over.  Mahler expands on Bach and Beethoven, encompassing the richness of the final years of the 19th C. and the sense of ongoing struggles with the search for Truth into the 20th C.

 

Mahler's 9 completed symphonies, along with his Song of the Earth, bring us the most complete look at what it means to be human.  There is great beauty contrasted with supreme ugliness; ultimate serenity with brashness and chaos; human pain and misery with the very lightness of being alive and happily aware of the fact.  Each symphony is like an epic book that needs to be read and reread, not only to explore things missed the first, second, or third time, but to reinforce the ideas presented and keep them uppermost in our minds as we grind away at our daily lives.  Walking around with high-level ideas in our head can help keep us focused on why we are even here in the first place, and should be of some aid in assisting us in what we should be doing and how we should be going about it.

 

After hearing today's performance I am more determined that ever to become reacquainted with all the symphonies of Mahler.  I already have healthy doses of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart passing within me, and I believe I have some room left over.  The symphonies should never be listened to all in one go, as in a solid weekend.  That would be like overdosing on a drug that may assist you if used reasonably, but kill you if overdosed.  Beginners should, in fact, take him one movement at a time, listening to the first symphony over the period of a week or so, and hearing some movements more than once before proceeding to the much denser 2nd symphony.   I'll keep readers posted on this topic.

 

We just returned from a two week visit to London U.K.  The trip was a major test for us (especially Deb) to see if world travel is still feasible for us.  Our favourite trips are road trips within the USA, usually using New Mexico as our destination.  Since we have opted to avoid the US for some time due to political circumstances, we turned to our favourite international destination instead.  I will have much more to say about this trip in my Travels Abroad blog, but will confine myself to a few words here.  It had been 8 years since we last visited London.  It has changed in many ways and seems busier and more chaotic than ever.  We did our best to avoid central London, as we have been doing for the past several visits, choosing instead more rural areas and park lands.  We also escaped the city completely on two fun day trips.

 

The main difference between a road trip to NM and a flight to London is that the road trip is fun from day 1 onward, whereas the London trip means total and complete misery on the first and last days.  If the journey itself is to be part of the experience, than we much prefer road trips.  Flying in 2026 should be a hassle free and pleasurable experience: it is not.  Even though we experienced no problems with our four flights (Windsor to Toronto; Toronto to Heathrow and return), flight days are severely taxing and best forgotten.

 

On our return home we discovered our backyard purple lilac bush in full bloom, singing away to itself and the bees in a degree of splendor we have never seen before.

 

If one photo had to sum up our visit to London, this would be it.

 

We returned to find our lilac bush amidst its finest bloom to date.  We brought a cutting from our house in Windsor back in 1991. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

Mahler #9, and The Silent Age

The Mahler 9th Symphony is his final completed work in that genre.  He died before he could ever hear it performed.  Last night the DSO performed it, and we watched it live on Youtube.  I am familiar with several of the symphonies, but not this one.  Performance times vary between 75-90 minutes.  Our conductor, Jader Bignamini, performed it in 80 minutes.  In four movements, I could live without the first two.  We have heard much of it before in other symphonies.  However, the 3rd and 4th movements are totally incredible.  The third builds to a climax that only an orchestra that is at the top of its game should ever attempt.  It was a hair raising experience through our main stereo speakers, let me tell you.  From the back row of Orchestra Hall (which has the best sound), I doubt if anyone lived through the experience.  By contrast, the final movement ends so softly that one doesn't really know when it ends, exactly.  It represents death, and the final few bars are again a major test of an orchestra's ability to produce sound, but in such quiet tones that it is difficult to describe just how softly it ends.

 

The Silent Age is a short but effective game for PC from Denmark, 2012.  A janitor, Joe, must save the world from a pandemic, brought back by a time traveler.  It is an adventure game in 2D.  The player must figure out how to gain access to buildings, rooms, and scientific equipment, without arousing any suspicion.  Some of the dialogue is very funny.  The puzzles are mostly easy once you gain the trick of time travel.  It took us around 4 hours to finish the game, but it is worth a replay.  After finishing the beautiful Eastshade, and then Syberia 4, nothing much could compare with them, so this little game provided a nice transition from Syberia to wherever we go next.  Highly recommended.

Joe the janitor attempts to save the world in The Silent Age, a fun and short game for PC. 

 

We had a few very chilly days and nights lately, with wind and rain.  We were able to have a wood fire this past week, using up the wood I had chopped and prepared for our Beltane evening.  Beltane itself had been too warm for a fire, and Deb had been quite sick, too.  But it warmed the house for us Tuesday night.  Last night and this morning we resorted to turning on the wood pellet stove for a few hours, but the sun is now out and temps are on the rise once again.  The grass has been cut three times already.  Deb's coughing has slowed down a lot, too.

 

We've been close to home now since coming back from Sudbury.  Practicing, reading, some writing (I am attempting to get Valeria into a blog format, so that at least it's up somewhere on the internet; I also have ideas for a new novel), and Deb preparing her next film project have kept us busy.  Of course movie watching goes on, too.  Just this week Criterion started up a live TV channel, in addition to the streaming one.  Both times we turned it on for fun, it was showing movies we've seen and loved.

 

There are two recently watched ones, both pretty long.   I chose Julia, a French film from 2008 starring Tilda Swinton, as my going away choice for the week.  She plays an alcoholic woman who kidnaps a young boy.  They end up in Mexico, where the kid gets kidnapped by Mexican gangsters.  The script is something that sounds as if it was made up as the film went along.  I can see why Tilda would accept the part, as she is in virtually every scene.  More a horror movie than a crime drama, there are many scenes I wish I could unsee.  Some of these involve pointing a gun at the kid's head and screaming and swearing at him, while others involve tying him up and gagging him, rolling him in a carpet and putting him in a trunk.  There are other scenes similar to this, too.  Julia, the character played by Tilda, is not the motherly type.  Until the very end, when she has lost everything.  Suddenly her motherhood instincts kick in.  Quite a pointless film, with a very unflattering opinion of Mexico and Mexicans.

Leaving Mubi soon. 

 

Dealing with even nastier source material, but presenting it in as a virtuosic cinematic experience is Nobuhiko Obayashi's 2012 marvel, Casting Blossoms To The Sky  It is the first in an anti-war trilogy by the director of House. It takes place in Nagaoka, a city that was fire bombed on August 1st, 1945.  Is uses words and first hand experiences from that event, it which the city was completely burned and hundreds of citizens lost their lives.  The city now uses a fireworks display to help it come to terms with its past.  Special effects are child-like but very effective, as the local high school prepares to put on a play about the tragedy on the anniversary of the bombing.  It was written by an 18 year old unicycle riding high school girl.  Melding the past with the present in a very artistic and skilful way, the stories about that night become more haunting than a simple retelling of them could be.  Fireworks are essentially the same as bombs, but their ultimate use differs quite substantially.  Though a film with many quiet moments, it is not a quiet film.  This film is a must see, and I will be screening the other two films soon.

Showing now on Criterion. 

 

Mapman Mike