Symphony No. 4 (Mahler)

Franz Schubert has always been one of the closest composers to Maler - not only with his song cycles, but also with his “song” symphony. “To a greater degree than about any other composition of Mahler,” writes Inna Barsova , “one can say of the Fourth: a symphony born of a song” ^[1] . Back in the summer of 1892, working on the Second Symphony , Mahler composed a children's song “We Taste the Celestial Joys” ( German: Wir geeniessen die himmlischen Freuden ), or “Heavenly Life” ( German: Das himmische Leben ), on the text from The Boy 's Magic Horn ”, Which captured children's ideas about Paradise ^{[2] [1]} . This vocal miniature for voice and orchestra, Mahler originally wanted to make his Third Symphony finale; but in the course of the work, the plan changed: the idea of ​​a new symphony was born - based on “Heavenly Life” ^[2] . Plans for the Third and Fourth Symphonies, apparently, pounced almost simultaneously: “Morning Bells” from the sketch of the Fourth eventually became the fifth part of the Third ^[3] .

Work on the Fourth Symphony of Mahler began in July 1899 ^[4] . In October 1897, he became director of the Vienna Opera , and he had to compose his own music in his free time, mostly during the summer months, on vacation, this time in Mayernig ^[2] . Whatever duties diverted Mahler from the composition, the inner work continued, and in fact he wrote the symphony in a little over three weeks in July-August 1900; rewrote in the beginning of January 1901 ^[4] .

Musicologists consider the composer's symphonic heritage as an instrumental epic: he linked each symphony with the previous one using the same thematic material; so in the finale of the Fourth Symphony music from the fifth part of the Third ^{[5] [3]} . Using the same poetic source, the Magic Horn of the Boy collection of German folk songs, connects it with the two previous ones. And at the same time, among the symphonies of Mahler, the Fourth is distinguished by its chamber nature: she was born from a song, which determined her internal program, figurative content, and thematism ^[3] . “Strictly speaking,” Mahler admitted later, “I wanted to write only a symphonic humorist, and I had a symphony of normal size” ^[6] .

The composer more than once called his Fourth Symphony “Humorous”, and this was her initial designation (“Humoreske”) ^[4] , but this is a special humor: the ruler of the thoughts of the young Mahler, Jean Paul, considered humor as the only salvation from despair, from tragedy, which a person cannot prevent, and contradictions that cannot be eliminated ^[7] . In the seeming simplicity of the Fourth Symphony, musicologists see an attempt to get away from the “damned questions”, learn to be content with what is, perhaps the result of fatigue and frustration ^[7] . On the other hand, the first part of Mahler’s instrumental epic ended with the Fourth Symphony, and, as ancient tetralogy ended with a satyric drama , the conflict of his symphonic tetralogy finds its resolution in a “special kind of humor” ^[8] .

First Performances

The premiere of the symphony, under the direction of the author, took place in Munich on November 25, 1901 ; the soprano part was played by Margaret Michalek ^[9] . The singularity of the language of this symphony is shocking simplicity, “old-fashionedness”, sometimes forcing J. Haydn to recall, and now often puts the listener at a dead end; it seemed to contemporaries that the composer was mocking them ^[4] . Both the Munich premiere and the first performances in Frankfurt (under the direction of Felix Weingartner ) and in Berlin were accompanied by a whistle ^[4] . Critics described the symphony music as flat, without style, without melody, artificial and hysterical; The composer himself was suspected of having pleasure, stunning his listeners with a “terrible, incredible cacophony ” ^[4] .

In the Austrian capital, in the process of rehearsals (in January 1902), Mahler faced a frank opposition from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra ^[10] . At the Vienna premiere, according to the testimony of Bruno Walter , “opposing opinions clashed so vigorously that the case almost got into a fight between enthusiasts and opponents” ^[11] . Before the publication of the score in 1902, Mahler made some changes to it ^[12] .

In fact, Mahler’s “old-fashioned” four-part composition differs significantly from the classical symphony in its musical language and structure, as it is represented in the works of J. Haydn and W.A. Mozart : allegro , andante ( adagio ), minuet , final ^[13] . Already L. van Beethoven repeatedly refused from the minuet in favor of the scherzo , and in the Ninth Symphony he reversed the second and third parts ^[14] . Such a construction: allegro, scherzo, adagio, final - reproduced in his last symphonies by Anton Bruckner ; Mahler, who conducted a series of experiments in the first three symphonies, in the Fourth follows his teacher Bruckner, admitting, as is his custom, some deviations from the canonical tempo ^[15] . Generally, as Henri-Louis de La Grange notes, unlike neoclassicism , which became widespread in Europe in the 20s of the 20th century, Mahler’s “neoclassical” symphony doesn’t have anything to do with “escape into the past”. in which exceptional concentration and courage of musical thought are hidden behind sound austerity ^[4] .

Nevertheless, the most important feature of her style is the use of a musical language (albeit stylized) and forms from another era, directly connected with Mahler’s desire to recreate the world of Harmony in her symphony: both Viennese classics and folk music of the 18th century were associated with man fin de siècle cloudless "golden age", with idyll and harmony ^{[4] [16]} .

If a typical romantic conflict was reflected in the First Symphony : the naive individual, feeling his disagreement with the hypocritical world, returns to nature, where he finds harmony, then in the next three Mahler tried to reach the common human level ^[8] . In the music of the Fourth Symphony, I. Barsova writes, good and evil appear as generalized and abstracted categories: Harmony, which embodies the person’s eternal dream of a beautiful, “otherworldly” world, and Disharmony; but the “story” is conducted on behalf of the child, and, moreover, the child who is not spoiled by life; Paradise for him is the fulfillment of his modest earthly dreams, which brings Mahler's symphony closer to the “Christmas story” genre ^{[17] [10]} . Written in 1876 and translated into many European languages, the story revered by Mahler F. M. Dostoevsky, “The Boy at Christ on the Christmas Tree” - about a freezing child, who dreamed of a tree in the sky in death dreams, was also known to Maler ^[10] . The composer himself defined the emotional structure of the symphony as “the cloudlessness of a different, more sublime, alien world”, in which there is even “something frightening and terrible for us” ^[18] . In turn, aggressive Disharmony in the music of the symphony is associated with the folklore images of the Old Woman with a scythe and Liha ^[10] .

The first part of the symphony is only camouflaged under the classical form of the sonata allegro , and Mahler defined the tempo of this part differently: “ German. Bedächtig. Nicht eilen "(" Beware. Do not rush "). In the exposition all themes create the world of Harmony; Contrasting theme, Disharmony, contrary to classical canons, first appears in the design , where Mahler, albeit softly, lovingly, according to I. Barsova, but still parodies the stylistic techniques of the Viennese classics ^{[19] [20]} .

Everything in this part is strange, mysterious; a certain character, having bells with bells in a gentle, three-stroke intro, immediately disappears to appear several more times in the first part, “as if pushing a cap with bells into the opening of the slamming curtain” ^[21] and then in the final of the symphony, but to remain unrecognized ^{[22] [20]} . These bells create a kind of mechanical background: everything seems unreal, like in a puppet theater - and the idyll of the exposition embodied in stylized, patriarchal and simple music, and a distorted look like a curved mirror ^[23] . Exposure themes are exposed in the design of a downward, grotesque-fictional transformation; Harmony's attempts to get rid of the delusion fail; it is restored twice, not as a result of a struggle, but as if by magic ^[24] . In the exposition, Harmony seems to be winning, but its theme seems inanimate; it gradually freezes, and somewhere behind the curtain of this magical theater, all of a sudden, a wonderful “revival” occurs ^[24] .

The second part is the scherzo, although Mahler designated it differently: “ it is. In gemächlicher Bewegung. Ohne Hast "(" In a quiet motion. Take your time "). The original heading - “Freund Hein spielt auf” (“Death plays around”) - Mahler, when he first performed and published, took off, but in this part he repelled from the folklore image of Death ( Freund Hein ), and the nature of it, respectively, is determined by Disharmony ^{[25 ]} . Evil appears here in popular prints ; the tavern orchestra deliberately falsely plays either a waltz or a landler . In the infantile-lyrical theme that opposes this bleak world, numerous conversations with the finale indicate that this is already a matter of heavenly harmony ^{[26] [25]} .

The third part , designated by the author as “ it. Ruhevoll ”(“ Full of Peace ”) is one of the most beautiful examples of Mahler’s music, meditative , quite in the style of Bruckner, Adagio, which thematically sometimes even too clearly echoes the music of P. I. Tchaikovsky ^{[27] [26]} . Mahler said that while writing this Adagio, “divinely merry and infinitely sad,” he imagined his mother’s face, her “smile through tears” ^[4] . Wagner's "endless melody"; but the contemplative main theme in the process of development is transformed, declining and in the end, too, like the images of the previous parts, it is drawn into that carnival, which dominates the Fourth Symphony in a naive or ominous guise ^[28] . Against the background of carnival, which bursts even into this, elegiac part of the symphony, a sudden explosion at the end, with the melody of the song “Heavenly Life”, allows for various interpretations. According to some researchers (and interpreters), this song sounds like “a cry for the last refuge of a tortured soul that has nowhere to go, nothing to hope for” ^[26] ; according to others, on the contrary: “... The unexpected happens: in the ensuing silence, earthly limits opened like a vision and a vision of paradise opened. [...] The last few bars of Adagio are like an endless sigh after an unprecedented joyful shock ” ^[29] .

The final of the symphony, designated as “ him. Sehr behaglich ”(“ Very cozy ”), opens with the same theme, which ends the third part. The soprano (but the child’s voice is thought of) glorifies the serenity of “heavenly life” - the text of the song “We Taste the Celestial Joys” sounds in Old-French dialect and is poorly understood even by the Germans; the melody creates a feeling of comfort ^{[30] [31]} . But here someone appears again in a jester's cap with bells. Paradise in the final part of the symphony is the carnival “inverted” world, the Gospel images in the song are grotesquely reduced, the saints and angels serve the poor here: the evangelist Luke slaughters the bull for them, the apostle Peter catches fish, the angels bake bread; everything is abundant here, and wine in this beautiful world is not worth a penny ^[32] . “A special kind of humor” materializes in the deliberately archaic style of the chorals , which in each stanza of the song are accompanied by references to the saints ^[33] .

But the topic of satiety, which is eternally relevant for the poor, ultimately gives way to the spiritual joys of heavenly life: “very gently and mysteriously to the end,” according to Mahler’s remark, the verse “There is no music on earth that can compare with ours” sounds. And, although the music of the inhabitants of Paradise delights over . Cecilia, with her relatives, is perhaps the most serious, with all her naivete, part of the symphony, ending sadly and peacefully: “That all should awaken for joy” ^{[34] [35]} .

The unique originality of the Fourth Symphony, writes I. Barsov, is that the answer to the “eternal questions” is given in it by the “ extraneous language of a philosophical fairy tale or parable, in which naivety and refinement of fantasy and musical speech intricately interlaced, a huge layer of traditional imagery and traditional music the vocabulary and the subjective uniqueness of the vision inherent in Maler - the artist of the beginning XX century ” ^[36] .

Experts note in the Fourth Symphony of Mahler an unusually modest performing composition for the composer: in fact, it is a small symphony orchestra , which corresponds to the chamber character of the symphony ^{[3] [31]} . In addition to the string group , including five-string double bass , the symphony score includes 4 flutes , 2 piccolo flutes , 3 oboes , English horn , 3 clarinets , clarinet-piccolo , bass clarinet , 3 bassoons , konfrashot , 4 French horns , 3 trumpets , row percussion instruments — timpani , triangle , bells, cymbals , large drum , tom-toms and hand bells — as well as harp and soprano -solo ^[2] .

In September 1902, Conductor Julius Butsu Mahler wrote about his Fourth Symphony: “This persecuted stepson still saw very little joy in the world. I am incredibly pleased that you had to taste this work, and I can only wish that the audience raised by you could feel and understand it with you. In general, I learned through experience that even the best often do not understand the humor of this kind (it must be distinguished from sharpness, from merry joke) ” ^[37] .

At the beginning of the 20th century, Mahler remained a composer, recognized only by a relatively narrow circle of connoisseurs. In the case of the Fourth Symphony, the perception was hampered by the fact that it was born from the song that completed the cycle, and the key to the plan, respectively, appears only in the final; besides, the key is rather ambiguous - the symphony cannot be interpreted unambiguously ^{[20] [38]} . But for some it was the mystery that made her especially attractive ^[38] . Among the admirers of the composer were many conductors , including such outstanding ones as Willem Mengelberg , Bruno Walter and Otto Klemperer , who for half a century propagandized his music, until - in the late 50s - did not occur, according to Leonard Bernstein , " the time of Mahler " ^[39] . In Amsterdam , where Mengelberg reigned, Mahler already found a more prepared and grateful audience in 1904: at the end of October the Concertgebouw Orchestra director dedicated a cycle of concerts to the composer’s work, and the Fourth Symphony sounded twice in one of the concerts - under Mengelberg’s control and under the author's control ^{[40 ]} . In the same year of 1904, the symphony was first performed in the United States by Walter Dumros with the New York Symphony Orchestra ^[41] .

The symphony was often included in his concert programs by Bruno Walter and in 1945 in New York made one of its first audio recordings ^[42] . At one time, Mahler recorded the final of a symphony in piano transcription ^[43] at Velte Mignon ; The first full record, technically far from perfect, was made back in May 1930 in Japan by conductor Hidemaro Konoe. The second, and also technically imperfect (concert), belongs to Mengelberg and dates back to 1939 ^[44] . Between 1945 and 1955, Bruno Walter made a total of 10 studio and concert recordings with various orchestras of Europe and the United States, the last, the 11th, in 1960 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra ^[44] . Otto Klemperer only in 1954-1956 recorded the symphony five times ^[44] .

With the onset of "Mahler's boom," not many eminent conductors paid attention to the Fourth Symphony, its records were left, in particular, by Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten , Herbert von Karajan , in 2012 the total number of recordings was already approaching the 200th ^[45] . In the USSR, the first recording of the symphony took place in October 1954, under the direction of Carl Eliasberg , and until 1972 it remained the only one ^[44] .

In the theater

In 1977 , choreographer John Neumayer staged the ballet “The Fourth Symphony of Gustav Mahler” to the music of this symphony ( Royal Ballet , London).

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