Extras

Embrace Everything
Extras

Season 2 Extra

Joanna Neilly

Professor of German

St. Peter’s College, Oxford University

Mahler drew inspiration from Des Knaben Wunderhorn for many compositions. Here is some background on this collection of folk texts.

Season 2 Extra

Gustav Mahler

(1860-1911)

Composer

Mahler wrote to his friend Richard Strauss with a long list of requests for the first rehearsal of the Second Symphony in 1895.

Extra Special

Ed Yim

Chief Content Officer and Senior Vice President

WQXR Radio, New York

Who gets to conduct Mahler symphonies? A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at how these decisions get made.

Season 3 Extra

James Burton

Choral Director

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Mahler is known for his detailed instructions to musicians. Here we learn about a very important instruction that Mahler left out.

Season 3 Extra

Christopher Martin

Principal Trumpet

New York Philharmonic

Mahler considered certain kinds of sounds as musical symbols. How does this idea pertain to his trumpet parts?

Season 2 Extra

Stefan Dohr

Principal Horn

Berlin Philharmonic

What is the most difficult part for the French Horns in Mahler’s Second Symphony? This unexpected answer might surprise you.

Extra Special

William Henry Curry

Conductor and Music Director

Durham Symphony Orchestra

What did it sound like when Mahler conducted his own symphonies? Some intriguing musical detective work provides potential clues.

Season 1 Extra

Phil Bohlman

Ethnomusicologist

University of Chicago

Mahler’s favorite dance form to use in his symphonies was the Ländler. What does it look like to dance a Ländler?

Season 3 Extra

Friedrich Nietzsche

(1844-1900)

Philosopher

Mahler appreciated Nietzsche’s poetic fire. In this excerpt from Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche meditates on sounds and dance.

Season 1 Extra

Christian Glanz

Director of the Gustav Mahler Science Center

University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna

Mahler grew up listening to military bands and used these sounds in his symphonies. What kind of marches did the military bands play?

Season 3 Extra

Ioannis Konstantakos

Professor of Ancient Greek Literature

University of Athens, Greece

Mahler drew much inspiration from the God Pan of ancient Greece. And Pan was, himself, a musician with his own famous musical instrument.

Season 2 Extra

Gustav Mahler

(1860-1911)

Composer

Mahler was on a quest to find the perfect bell for the end of his Second Symphony. He told this story to the soprano Anna von Mildenburg.

Season 1 Extra

Christine Lee Gengaro

Professor of Music

Los Angeles City College

Is there a parallel between the story arc of Mahler’s First Symphony and Joseph Campbell’s popular idea of The Hero’s Journey?

Season 1 & 2 Extra

Joseph Conyers

Principal Bass

Philadelphia Orchestra

Mahler used every instrument to bring his musical ideas to life. Here we learn about how he used the lowest part of the orchestra.

Season 3 Extra

Arthur Schopenhauer

(1788-1860)

Philosopher

Schopenhauer reflects on the cyclical nature of life, an idea that would’ve resonated with the philosopher Nietzsche, as well as Mahler.

Season 3 Extra

Gustav Theodor Fechner

(1801-1887)

Scientist and Philosopher

One of Mahler’s favorite philosophers described an illness that eventually allowed him to see the magic of nature with new clarity.

Season 3 Extra

Kent Nagano

Conductor

Hamburg State Opera & Philharmonic State Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Mahler said the second movement of his Third Symphony should be interpreted in the tempo of a minuet. What exactly did he mean by that?

Season 1 Extra

Michael Tilson Thomas

Conductor

San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, and the New World Symphony

How did Mahler choose which instruments to use? A discussion of the instrumental choices he made for the opening of his First Symphony.

Season 2 Extra

D.D. Jackson

Multi-Emmy-Winning Jazz Pianist and Composer

An intriguing connection between the ragtime music of Scott Joplin and the harmony of the second movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony.

Extra Special

Marina Mahler

President & Founder of the Mahler Foundation

Gustav Mahler’s granddaughter discusses her reasons for establishing the Mahler Foundation, one of the world’s leading Mahler organizations.

Season 1 Extra

Caroline Kita

Professor of German and Comparative Literature
Washington University in St. Louis

“Titan” was the original name Mahler gave to his First Symphony. He later removed the title, but why did Mahler find “Titan” appealing?

Season 3 Extra

Carter Brey

Principal Cello
New York Philharmonic

Towards the end of the second movement of his Third Symphony, could Mahler have borrowed a melody from Brahms?