Classical Passion

Like most other aspects of our life, the concept of love as we understand it as a society has been changed nearly unrecognizably by the last century. So when in 1902 the newlywed Gustav Mahler sat to write the Adagietto movement of his new, fifth symphony, surely his new wife, Alma, was on his mind. And surely the lush, beautiful sounds he composed were a far cry from what we would today consider a love song. No guitar, no refrain – not even lyrics. Yet somehow the music has managed to startle audiences around the world (the Adagietto movement, extracted from the Fifth Symphony, is probably Mahler’s most often performed work) with its beauty and sincerity.

This week, The Phoenix Symphony will perform concerts entitled "A Musical Love Story," that feature love-inspiring and -inspired works from some of the masters, including Mahler’s Adagietto. In a few weeks (the end of February and the beginning of March), you’ll hear The Phoenix Symphony perform Mahler’s quiet masterpiece wedged between the troubled and heroic movements that complete his Symphony No. 5; but for now, won’t it be marvelous just to hear unmasked emotion, passion, and love not yet complicated by the ensuing years.

Even Mahler himself recognized how drastically time would change a listener’s perspective on the work. Of the symphony as a whole, he is reported to have said, "Nobody understood it. I wish I could conduct the first performance fifty years after my death."