The Heavy Hammer of Fate

At the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden is on the disabled list.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Members of the New York Philharmonic brace for impact as Daniel Druckman
(with hammer) delivers the death blow during the Mahler Sixth. Photo by Chris Lee.

With the force of a gigantic hammer, a serious blow hit landed on the New York Philharmonic this week. The orchestra is playing Mahler's Symphony No. 6 in three concerts this week. The Sixth is Mahler's most pessimistic symphony, climaxing in its fourth movement with a series of enormous blows delivered by a wooden hammer. However, this week Philharmonic music director Jaap van Zweden was the one to get the bad news.

The Bernstein Legacy VI: Mahler's Sixth Symphony

Yes, this is "the one with the hammer."
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Cover art by Erte for the Mahler 6th © 1987 Deutsche Grammophon. Photo of Daniel Druckman by Chris Lee © 2016
The New York Philharmonic. Detail from cartoon of Gustav Mahler © 1910.

When Gustav Mahler started work on his Sixth Symphony, in 1904,life was going pretty well. He had married Alma Schindler, 19 years his junior and one of the most desirable brides in Vienna. They had had two beautiful daughters. Winters were spent leading the Vienna Hofoper, summers composing by the side of a mountain lake. Things were great, but this idyll would not last.

Concert Review: Hammer of the Gods

Semyon Bychkov conducts Mahler's Sixth.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The Mahler Sixth meets its maker at the New York Philharmonic.
L.-R. Kyle Zerna (with gong) Daniel Druckman (with hammer), Markus Rhoten (with timpani mallets)
and Christopher Lamb with cymbals. Photo by Chris Lee © 2016 The New York Philharmonic.

When the New York Philharmonic plays the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, it is always a meaningful experience. On Tuesday night, the orchestra that that Mahler himself once led gave the fourth and final performance this season of the composer's Symphony No. 6 in A minor at Avery Fisher Hall. Lasting an hour and a half and requiring enormous orchestral forces, this symphony stands out among the composer's works for its relentless, military character and dark ending, in which the music's quest to escape its dark home key is (quite literally) stopped in its tracks.