The Resurrection of Gustav Mahler
When Gustav Mahler began his Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” in 1888 he was a 28 year old itinerant conductor and virtually unknown as a composer. But by the time of its first complete performance in December 1895, Mahler was an increasingly celebrated maestro, having advanced his career with a combination of talent, cunning and sheer will. His own compositions however were still largely ignored. Reviewing an early reading of the first three movements of the Second Symphony, critics had dismissed Mahler’s work as “noisy and bombastic pathos” and “atrocious, tormenting dissonance.”
Imagine Mahler’s audacity in summoning the largest orchestra and chorus ever assembled to perform the final version of a symphony that had been so thoroughly reviled. Ticket sales were bleak to the point that people were let in for free to fill the seats. Yet, by the end of the performance, the audience responded with jubilation: “The triumph grew greater with every moment,” wrote one observer. “Such enthusiasm is seen only once in a lifetime!”
Mahler took seven years to compose, rearrange, re-orchestrate, edit and finally perform this single symphony. When on the piano he played the opening movement for the most admired conductor in Europe, Hans von Bülow, the maestro held his hands over his ears, shouting, “If this is music, then I know nothing about music!” And there was writer’s block: no way to finish the symphony. The first movement ended with perhaps too much finality. Mahler wrote that it was about the death of a hero. How do you continue when the hero dies in the first act?
From this inauspicious beginning came what is now one of the most beloved symphonies of its epoch. It seems that no matter the problem, Mahler’s musical instincts and artistic genius found the answer. The compositional history of this symphony contains one of the greatest ironies in all of music. It happened during a memorial service honoring the death of von Bülow, just a few years after their disastrous meeting at the piano. Hearing a boy’s choir intone Klopstock’s ode to the afterlife, Mahler “as if struck by lightning” found the solution to finishing his symphony: resurrection! But this would be no ordinary resurrection. Using musical symbols and texts from three different sources (including his own) he would compose a new understanding of what death and rebirth could mean. In so doing, he created a symphony of hope that has captivated and inspired millions of listeners.
Cultural Media Collaborative, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting great works of art to a wider public, is producing a film focusing on the Second Symphony “Resurrection” of Gustav Mahler. Shot in High Definition and employing surround sound, the film is being produced by an award winning crew led by producer/director Jason Starr. The performance will weave in and out of a documentary fabric of interviews, historical reenactments, scenes filmed where Mahler lived and composed, artwork, graphics, animation and archival film clips and photographs.
The interview subjects for the documentary comprise the world’s most renowned Mahler scholars, including Henry-Louis de La Grange, the author of the definitive four-volume biography of Mahler, Constantin Floros and Donald Mitchell, writers of numerous ground breaking books on Mahler and his music. They, along with other on-camera experts, and world famous baritone Thomas Hampson, are donating their time to this project.
In addition to international broadcast and educational distribution (with curriculum guide for classroom integration), a DVD will be made that will present the entire performance along with the documentary film: a complete educational package to help groups and individuals explore the magic and the majesty of the Resurrection Symphony.
At a time of terror, torture, war and intolerance, our society is in desperate need of spiritual nourishment and renewal. Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony makes music—the art of coming together, of harmony—the great metaphor of a life worth living. It uses spiritual symbols to proclaim a love that cannot be owned by one group or religion, but is universal and without judgment. In 1901 Mahler described the culminating moments of his Resurrection finale:
And behold: it is no court of justice—There is no sinner, no righteous man—no great and no small—It is not punishment and not reward! An omnipotent feeling of love illuminates us with blessed knowledge and being!
A Ritual Experience in Music
In the tradition of Wagner’s Gesamtkunstwerk (“total artwork”), Mahler intended to create an evening of music that would involve the audience in a communal event of transformation. The listeners may be unaware that they are on a journey from human egoism to spiritual wholeness, but they feel the emotional trajectory. Out of fear, anxiety and struggle, the Second Symphony propels the audience toward a hard-won victory of freedom and fulfillment.