Mahler Symphony No. 6 on Monday with Mahler

Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6, Tragic, will be featured this evening on Symphony at 7 in our series, Monday with Mahler.  Last week we heard the Third Symphony, with its transcendent, uplifting ending.  And while the final completed symphony, the Ninth (still to come in this series), is a musical farewell to life, the powerful Sixth Symphony is, by comparison, a descent into the heart of darkness. When this symphony was first performed in 1906, and in the preceding several years he worked on it, things seemed to be going very well for him: he had married Alma Schindler, he had a second daughter, and was still Music Director of the Vienna Opera.  The dark and, indeed, tragic feeling of much of this symphony is relieved by passages of great soaring beauty, such as the "Alma theme" in the first movement.  In Mahler, there is always that rubbing elbows of contrasting and conflicting moods, from joyous to tragic, but in this work the tragedy prevails. The famous ending with the hammer blows has been called one of the most brutal in all of music, but right from the start, we know we're going to be in for quite a rough ride.  For music of great power and drama, but also moments of tender beauty, tune in for this remarkable Late-Romantic symphony from Gustav Mahler. Here's just a bit from the opening movement: http://youtu.be/IT22BZ5gGbU