Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 7 ("Song of the Night") is probably the most difficult and least played of his nine (or ten). It lacks a big theme or other hook, and just when listeners may think they have pinned the music down, off it goes in a new direction. It is an astonishingly detailed score with many novel orchestral effects -- the list of symphonies calling for a mandolin is not a long one -- and even the triumphal brass finale is soon diverted into unexpected channels. All of this is an excellent fit for conductor ...
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Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 7 ("Song of the Night") is probably the most difficult and least played of his nine (or ten). It lacks a big theme or other hook, and just when listeners may think they have pinned the music down, off it goes in a new direction. It is an astonishingly detailed score with many novel orchestral effects -- the list of symphonies calling for a mandolin is not a long one -- and even the triumphal brass finale is soon diverted into unexpected channels. All of this is an excellent fit for conductor Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra, who have perhaps been a bit underpowered in earlier entries in their Mahler cycle: as Leonard Bernstein taught the world, Mahler is all about the histrionics that lie at the heart of the modern soul. Here the histrionics are built into the music, and Vänskä gets them by simply reproducing everything accurately. Minnesota's brass and especially the winds in the intricate snarls into which the symphony so often falls have never sounded better, and,...
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Add this copy of Symphony 7 to cart. $12.99, good condition, Sold by Dream Books Co. rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Denver, CO, UNITED STATES, published 2020 by BIS.
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