From the Portland Mercury arts listings:
OREGON SYMPHONY: MAHLER’S SIXTH
(Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) Gustav Mahler was a much better human than I’ll ever be. Case in point: If someone gave me a sledgehammer, my first impulse would be to enter Ned Lannamann’s pathetic cubicle at the Mercury offices and start swinging away at any computer (or fingers) I could find, with the aim of silencing this hopelessly uninformed, wildly myopic, so-called music editor for a good long while. Luckily, when the muses presented Mr. Mahler with a sledgehammer, the composer bravely resisted any destructive inclinations, and instead inserted this bluntest of instruments into his Symphony No. 6. The epic work might be labeled a symphony on paper, but in a live performance, this music will be nothing less than cathartic sacrament—nearly 90 solid minutes of 96 classically trained musicians on the Schnitzer stage wrestling with sonic nihilism and bitter chaos! Folks, this is Gustav fucking Mahler we’re talking about here. Witness. This. Show. ANGRY SYMPHONY GUY
3 replies on “angry symphony guy strikes again”
i dig it.
ASG mangle mercury muggs – heck, vut’z not to like?
HOWEVER, how ’bout sis-boom-bahing some of the more recent musics that the OSO so bravely trots out & about for a change? you know, Ades, Dutilleux, et al . . .
Mahler is a major stud to be sure, BUT, gustie is on most people’s radar these daze & doesn’t quite need the rabid boosterism that some of the more fringe-dwelling worthies do.
in other words, muster some cahones for music of OUR time!
pretty please with sister sledge’s cherry on top?
I would like an “I heart Angry Symphony Guy” t-shirt for Christmas.