MAHLER’S PRANK

By Alex Sino and Terry Heimat.

Synopsis.

The events take place in a large European city, without reference to a specific country. For many years, the city has had a symphony orchestra conducted by a famous conductor, Maestro. In recent years, Maestro has faced financial difficulties maintaining the orchestra, which city patrons, led by the Founder, fund. The Maestro has worked with an experienced administrator, Semyon Grigorievich Makhler, for many years. He is indispensable to the Maestro in resolving conflicts with the musicians and in managing the orchestra's finances.

To save the orchestra's reputation, the Maestro takes a risky step and introduces Gustav Mahler's First Symphony, “Titan,” into the orchestra's repertoire. This confuses the orchestra's Founder and leaves the musicians indifferent. The musicians do not accept his interpretation of the Titan symphony, especially the central movement, “The Hunter's Funeral,” with its primitive opening and its dashing funeral march in the development. In scenes from the everyday life of the orchestra members living in a dormitory, sometimes anecdotal, it is often discussed that playing The Hunter's Funeral is a bad omen. Mahler himself defined the mood of this part as “... a gloomy, ironic, oppressive melancholy of a funeral march.” In addition, the idea of animals mourning their dead tyrant does not elicit sympathy from the orchestra members.

- Immortality is music. But who can know what life is? - asks the Maestro of the Young Conductor.

One can only assume that life is a prank.

Terry Heimat

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